New acting Victoria Police Commissioner Rick Nugent says force needs a ‘reset’

ABC NEWS (Australia)

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.

Transcript

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.

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