Crimes are going unreported in the North East because of an "inadequate" number of police stationed at night, Northern Victoria MP Tania Maxwell has warned.
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Speaking in Parliament, the Wangaratta-based MP asked the government to report on how many new officers would be deployed at 24-hour police stations to help increase community safety.
According to Ms Maxwell's calculations, 24-hour stations in Northern Victoria are responsible for an average of 72 000 residents across 9000 square kilometres each night.
It is an increasingly urgent problem in many rural and regional communities specifically," she said.
"In just five months since the election I have been inundated with concerns about inadequate police resourcing in the northern half of the state, including many crimes going unreported altogether, especially in locations where a local police station is shut for the night and/or remains unmanned for many hours.
"This should hardly be surprising when one considers that it is quite obviously the case that many criminals or would-be criminals would be more attracted to the idea of committing their offences under the cover of darkness than during daylight hours in areas that they know are not manned."
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