The leadup to the 2018 state election has started, with law and order looking to be one of the main fronts that the Liberal opposition will use attack the Andrew’s Labor Government. Their solution – covering every railway station in Melbourne with advertising for Protective Services Officers.
‘See you at 6pm’ and ‘Safety you can see’ are the taglines of the campaign, with advertising space purchased on the JCDecaux digital screens found at railway stations.
In JCDecaux poster cases.
And the side of trains.
Stickers have been added as you walk into railway stations.
The poster cases usually used to host PTV promotions have been taken over.
And the previously anonymous PSO pods now feature a marketing spiel.
But Footscray station is ground zero for the campaign.
Stickers cover the stairs leading up to the footbridge.
‘Safety you can see’ billboards beside walkways.
The ‘See you at 6pm’ message looming over the main walkway.
‘Safety you can see’ stickers in front of the ticket gates.
And yellow and blue police tape applied to CCTV cameras.
Not just one, but all over the station.
Along with more police tape down the station walls.
And a big ‘CCTV cameras operate 24 hours a day’ sticker on the concourse floor.
It’s going to be a long election campaign.
Footnote
September 2 saw the announcement that PSOs would now start patrolling trains, expanding their area of operation from their previous posting at railway stations. Coincidence, or something more?
I would definitely like to see the statistics on arrests and stuff. Honestly, I think that it’s a little bit over the top, the level of safety staffing at night. The costs must be incredible. This job is literally, walk from one platform to the other. The sheer boredom of this position must be incredible. And the cost of placing a police building at every station. The extra safety is great, but honestly, if you’ve ever been at Epping station when the youths just do whatever they want and the PSO does literally nothing before the youth runs off. It’s crazy, have we even got any evidence that the PSO’s actually perform arrests? I’d like this investigated.
This piece from 2016 by John Silvester is worth a read:
https://www.smh.com.au/opinion/psos-on-train-stations–there-has-to-be-a-better-way-20160922-grls4t.html
As well as the February 2016 report by the Victorian Auditor-General titled ‘Public Safety on Victoria’s Train System’:
https://www.audit.vic.gov.au/report/public-safety-victorias-train-system
I’m not sure that mass promotion of how much security that railway stations have is really going to give a great impression to the public. It tends to make the public think something is wrong to justify having so much of a presence.
It’s the same as if you drive around a suburb and see lots of houses with big fences and signs saying “beware of dogs” or “warning 24 hour alarms, CCTV & patrols”. It makes most people think there must be serious issues in the neighbourhood, not just that the residents are security conscious.
I’m of a similar opinion, but have no evidence to back it up.
Someone got bashed at Footscray Station in broad daylight in 2009, so I have always supported PSOs at train stations.
I hated how Indian students were being bashed and the police did not give a damn. One guy went blind in one eye – perhaps permanently – and the police said “these are minor injuries”!
https://www.news18.com/news/india/aus-saurab-update-318034.html
The 20 year old criminal was not put in jail!
https://www.news.com.au/national/no-jail-for-youths-who-blinded-indian-student-kanan-kharbanda/news-story/050c70a8623cde7afa5b9b1dca6e2c6d
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It is silly to put blue and yellow tape on CCTV cameras because that just invites criminals to smash the cameras. Criminals are stupid enough to commit crime in front of CCTV cameras: On 15 April 2016, Mr Shengliang Wan killed Mr Longxiang Hu in front of CCTV cameras in Chinatown!
Mr Saurabh Sharma was bashed in front of CCTV cameras too.
If PSOs are getting bored, they can look at CCTV footage in between train arrivals to help catch more criminals: the station should have WiFi and PSOs can use their phones to look at CCTV footage.
Boronia station has a live feed from the CCTV cameras to the local cop shop:
https://www.police.vic.gov.au/content.asp?Document_ID=17825
While up in Queensland their police have full access to 7,000+ cameras across their rail network:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-09-09/police-gain-access-to-live-queensland-rail-security-cam-vision/7831608