Victoria’s new acting police commissioner says the force needs a ‘reset’ following the resignation of his predecessor. Rick Nugent was sworn in to replay Shane Patton as the state’s top cop yesterday and says he wants to restore public trust in the police and fix the plummeting morale amongst his officers.
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TVTranscript
00:00Back in blue, but in a role that'll take a little adjusting to.
00:07Welcome, I almost said the State Control Centre. Welcome to the Victoria Police Centre.
00:13Last week, Rick Nugent was the State's Emergency Commissioner, but on Friday, a no-confidence
00:17vote in the Chief Commissioner from police union members led to Shane Patton's resignation
00:22on Sunday. And later that night, Mr Nugent got something his predecessor didn't, a call
00:28from the Police Minister and Premier.
00:30There's a lot of discussion about that and that's a matter for Shane and those involved
00:35in discussions.
00:36And on those fronts, the new boss has a big job on his hands, particularly getting the
00:41community back on side.
00:43We also need as an organisation to have the trust and confidence of the community and
00:48this has diminished in recent times.
00:50Fixing that in part, he says, will take tackling a spike in crime that has brought a renewed
00:55focus on bail laws.
00:57Well they need to be tightened. They need to be tightened.
01:01Former Chief Magistrate Nick Pappas-Casey agrees.
01:04Community confidence requires that the laws reflect both good practice, good policy, but
01:10also an emphasis on community safety. And so yes, I think the bail laws are urgently
01:15in need of review, especially in relation to repeat offenders.
01:19Acting Commissioner Nugent is also up against a disgruntled workforce with morale low among
01:24officers. To turn things around, he says he wants to improve recruitment, fill the
01:28more than 1,000 current vacancies in the force and lock in a pay deal that's been 18 months
01:34in negotiations.
01:35A 20% increase over 28 months is quite a reasonable pay rise.
01:40Members will vote on the Enterprise Bargaining Agreement next week. Negotiating with government
01:45on funding is another challenge, but he's not calling for more cash just yet.
01:50I need to better understand firstly our funding model and expenditure within the organisation.
01:57And while the role is temporary, Mr Nugent says he'll put up his hand for the permanent
02:02position.