Victoria Police to shorten training course to boost policing
Victoria Police is introducing a shorter training program for new recruits designed to boost policing numbers to improve community safety.
The force says the new 25-week program is an overhaul of its existing 31-week training course which has not changed significantly in content for 15 years.
Police recruits will still complete a Diploma of Policing, which remains unchanged in length at 116 weeks.
"The new program will be more practical and interactive, with a greater emphasis on receiving mentoring from experienced officers, while supporting victims, patrolling the community, responding to incidents and keeping the roads safe," an official media statement said.
"It's envisaged the changes will allow more rapid deployment of new police to support the hardworking frontline."
The first in-take for the new course will start in mid-July.
Police Association of Victoria secretary Wayne Gatt said there had been feedback from recent graduates that the training program was inefficient.
"Our newest members have told us that there's a degree of repetition," he told ABC Radio Melbourne.
"They have told us that some of the training isn't fit for purpose and doesn't actually match the training needs of police when they actually hit the streets, so it under-prepares them."
He said the use of tasers would go into the new training program for the first time, to complement the deployment of tasers across the force.
And he said concerns about youth crime were a factor driving changes to training.
"We'd say we've got an endemic situation out there that is youth crime," Mr Gatt said.
"Our members are seeing more dangerous circumstances with these offenders. It requires a nuance in the way they're taught to have to adjust to that."
He said changes to field placements would make new officers "more active, more quickly".
"The real training starts when you leave the academy and you start in a workplace with seasoned, experienced police officers to guide you," he said.
Mr Gatt said there were currently 1,100 vacancies in the Victorian police force and 800 people on sick leave.
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