Victoria Police is preparing to reshape its highway patrol model with a trial that would bring back opt-in solo patrols later this year, despite strong criticism tied to officer safety and past deaths in the line of duty.
The force is planning to reintroduce solo highway patrols as part of a trial expected to begin in August or September. Under the proposal, individual highway officers would operate on what Victoria Police describes as a “proximity patrol”, meaning single officers would patrol roads near one another.
Victoria Police Assistant Commissioner Mick Hermans said the move is being driven by road safety, not by staffing shortages, even as resource pressures have forced some police stations across the state to cut reception hours.
“A highly visible police presence provides a significant general deterrence and will lead to less road trauma,” Assistant Commissioner Hermans said in a media statement.
He also rejected suggestions the change is linked to falling staff numbers.
“The proposed change is not because of vacancy numbers – the same number of police would be deployed.”
The plan has drawn an angry response from the Police Association, which represents 18,000 members in Victoria.
Solo highway patrols were outlawed in the state in 2015, but concerns about the system had already been raised years earlier. A 2010 coronial inquiry into the killing of Senior Constable Anthony Clarke, who was murdered in 2005 while carrying out a roadside breath test in the Yarra Ranges, examined the dangers of officers working alone.
Then-coroner Kim Parkinson found that Clarke’s solo patrol duties were “one of a number of contributing factors” to Clarke’s death.
Police Association chief executive officer Wayne Gatt condemned the decision to restore single-officer patrols, saying the earlier ban existed because member safety had to come first.
“One-up patrols in Victoria Police ceased because the safety of our members was rightly prioritised over perceived efficiency derived out of working shifts alone,” Gatt said in a media statement.
“Tony Clarke wasn’t the first member of ours to be killed in the line of duty while working solo. After the coroner’s recommendation to end ‘one-up patrols’ was accepted by Victoria Police more than a decade ago, we hoped he would be the last.
“When the inevitable happens and one of my members is seriously injured or worse dies at work, the people that make this decision will need to look at themselves in the mirror and account for their decisions today.”
Hermans said the proposed trial would also involve consultation with officers and formal safety measures.
“It’s important to make clear this potential activity will involve engagements with the workforce and include occupational health and safety assessments,” he said.
