This regional Victorian police district has serious staff shortages, and the state's police union says it's not just because of COVID. They're urging Victoria Police to investigate.
Victoria's police union says a combination of stress and sickness is causing severe workforce shortages in a regional Victorian police district.Victoria Police have provided temporary deployments to the stations, to shore up staffingPolice Association of Victoria secretary Wayne Gatt recently visited the Wodonga police service area after hearing of an "extraordinary situation" where more than 50 officers were on leave.
Victoria Police said many of the absences at Wodonga and Wangaratta stations were unplanned, such as work cover and sick leave. "Put simply, for the community, we have sufficient police officers both at stations and out on the road in divisional vans responding to incidents as they occur," a spokesperson said."[We] will continue to support those who have taken unplanned leave … and we'll continue to work with them to get them back to work as soon as they are able to," the spokesperson said.
"There was a number of members who had long-term mental health injuries like post-traumatic stress injuries," he said."But some of them result sadly in members being discharged," he said.
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