Ballarat East MLA Geoff Howard said last week he did not believe Ballarat had a shortage of police. At the weekend, his local colleagues supported him.

Community sentiment, it would seem, is against them.

We agree with Mr Howard when he says that governments do not have endless amounts of money and must spend wisely. We also agree with him when he says it is not the role of politicians to tell police command what to do with its workforce.

It is, however, the role of government to ensure that police command have sufficient numbers to carry out their work efficiently and without undue pressure or stress.

Currently, Ballarat does not have that.

Whenever this newspaper has questioned Mr Howard on the issue of police numbers, he recites that the Labor Government has given Victoria 1400 more police. He is less specific on numbers for Ballarat.

It is acknowledged that Ballarat has specialist units now that it has not had in the recent past. The domestic violence unit and the criminal investigation unit are but two.

Welcome though they are, they have not been able to address the shortage of police out on the streets "policing" our city. In some cases, police have reportedly been pulled from frontline duties to staff them.

Our local MPs may well honestly believe that Ballarat does not have a problem with police numbers. Most of their constituents would disagree, however.

As yet, the Liberal Party has not put up a candidate against Mr Howard in his Ballarat East seat. When it does, he or she will no doubt promise to fight for more police for Ballarat. (Opposition leader Ted Baillieu has already indicated this will be a priority for Victoria should he become

Premier.)

It is difficult to imagine how Mr Howard might counter that, given his comments on Friday that he does not believe Ballarat needs more police.

The fact of the matter is this: Ballarat does need more police. And we need our local members to support us in making that happen.

This is the message we want the Government to hear. We need more police to ensure that all aspects of policing can be carried out properly.

And we need our elected members of parliament to help us argue our case to the Government.