More Support will release Police for Operational Duties
CPSU State Secretary Karen Batt welcomed news of additional police funding for civilian support describing the budget initiative as 'a smart spend'.

For a modest investment, many hundreds of sworn officers can be returned to operational duties, the jobs they were trained and are paid for, she said.

There is no need for leading senior constables and sergeants to be supervising civilian support staff in property, vehicle, finance, fingerprints, crime analysis, IT and forensic, she said.

Our recent dispute in RTTU is an example where a VPSG2 position (CPSU member) has been declared redundant and operational staff (sworn officers) are being rostered to perform her duties on a monthly basis and are being pulled off the road to do this!

There are a myriad of similar examples of inappropriate use of sworn officers avoiding operational duties and this poor financial decision making effectively paying twice the amount for a job at half the value.

• fingerprints - half sworn, half unsworn - meant to have been civilianised years ago but no funding made available ‚Äö√Ñ√¨ so current practice continues - if it is a sworn vacancy it is advertised and filled by a sworn and if there is an unsworn vacancy it is advertised as an FO position. Project arbiter (10 years old) was the report that recommended civilianisation of fingerprint officers. Civilian staff need a degree with expectations of higher qualifications including a 5 year TAFE course to be accepted as ‚Äö√Ñ√≤expert and are paid $50K whereas the sworn sergeants just do the 20 weeks at the Academy and are paid $100K which includes shift allowances despite them working 9 - 5.
• qualified and experienced civilian Intelligence Analysts are required to be supervised by Sergeants, Senior Sergeants and Inspectors with no analytical background. The Senior Sergeants seem to do little but rubber stamp things passing up and down the chain of command. The Admin work includes checking diaries, claims, leave forms and so on. For ~$100,000.
• Dawson Street Police Garage Brunswick - washing and parking cars.
• Armoury ‚Äö√Ñ√¨ weapon testing facility staffed by civilians overseen by sworn effectively just repacking bullet casings.
• Sworn working as property officers. Ours again get $50K and the Sergeants $100K.
• BITS (Leap, Link, IT etc..) particularly contract management is full of sworn and they re paid as shift workers when in reality they re 9 ‚Äö√Ñ√¨ 5.
• FEMU - sworn officer in charge of evidence management @ forensic.
• Sworn Officers in Human Resources
• Sworn Oficers at the training unit (not the academy - the place where you re sent to learn how to use word, excel and send emails).