Victoria Police has announced it will recruit a further 200 reservist positions to free up serving officers to be out on the road.
The additional former police, many with decades of experience, will be deployed to stations across the state, Chief Commissioner Mike Bush.
“Reservists put police where they need to be – out in their communities preventing and detecting crime,” he said.
“This boost will double the number of reservist positions to 400 across the state.
“Along with performing public counter duties they will have a focus on freeing police from back-of-house roles.
“This initiative will eventually return around 16,000 policing hours to the frontline every single week.”
The latest reservist recruitment push is on top of 200 full-time equivalent positions already announced.
It means around 16,000 policing hours – the equivalent of 2,000 shifts – will be returned to the frontline each week once the entire reservist rollout is complete.
“Already we’ve seen some incredible people return to our organisation and this increase in reservists will ensure even more talent and experience comes back to the force,” said the Chief Commissioner.
Victoria Police today also confirmed the stations where a second wave of 50 reservists are being deployed over coming weeks. It brings the total number of stations with reservists so far to 41.
Stations to receive reservists for the first time are Box Hill, Doncaster, Echuca, Horsham, Melton, Narre Warren, Pakenham, Prahran, Ringwood, Traralgon, Wallan, Warrnambool, Werribee and Wonthaggi.
With the increase in available positions, Victoria Police is reminding former members applications for the newly-created frontline support officer role remain open. More than 550 applications have so far been received.
While Victoria Police now has funding for 400 full-time equivalent reservist positions actual numbers will exceed this as many will work part-time, meaning it will take several people to fill each position available.
Deployment of the first 200 reservist positions is due to be completed by December this year before the additional 200 positions are rolled out from January 2027.
Reservists receive a full-time salary of $86,188 a year and nine weeks of paid leave.
Further details on the program are available at https://www.police.vic.gov.au/reservist.
