Crime Statistics Agency figures released to Fairfax Media show the crime rate per 100,000 people – the most accurate way to measure offending – has leapt to a decade high, and that family violence is not the only reason for the historic leap.

The per capita crime rate has increased every quarter for the past two years, with the number of offences 27 per cent higher than six years ago, when the figure was the lowest recorded this decade.

The Police Association says the crime statistics underline that the force's plans to press ahead with an unprecedented transformation of policing has come at a cost to boots-on-the-ground policing.

And they have questioned whether the community is behind the force's push to seemingly abandon traditional policing by reducing opening hours at stations.

Deputy Commissioner Wendy Steendam said the force remained committed to a transformation, which started in 2014 with the release of the blue paper.

The paper advocated for taskforce-based policing, a reduction in station opening hours in favour of putting more police on patrol, and a commitment to embracing technology such as tablets for officers.

Deputy Commissioner Steendam said police did not need to improve how they consulted about the changes to rostering, despite uprisings in towns and suburbs that have been hit with stations that, in some cases, are now almost completely closed.

There have been instances, the union says, of the only consultation being a sign with the new hours fixed to the front of the police station.

It is unclear how many stations have had opening hours reduced, with the union saying they were in the dark.

Some stations had opening hours adjusted permanently, while others were closed for a single shift in response to a critical incident.

"When a consistent approach is not applied, the public does not know what to expect when they turn up at a station seeking help," Police Association assistant secretary Bruce McKenzie said.

"Technology will deliver some efficiencies, but all the cameras, tablets and radios in the world will not replace a police response and patrols necessary to prevent and respond to crime."

Deputy Commissioner Steendam said it was decided to close some stations more often to get more police on patrol, and that this was better for community safety.

She said the force remained committed to the development of "supersites" – larger stations with more services and a wider response area – but had not identified locations, and did not envisage that building these stations would force smaller stations to close.

A more immediate change will be the introduction of a IT system that allows faster and more detailed access to police intelligence than ever.

Last October, during a trial of the Intelligence Management and Analytics system in Dandenong, a man who was wanted for a series of commercial burglaries was found hiding at the house of an associate.

The man fled police who chased him on foot in Dandenong, and could not be found, until the program analysed all Victoria Police's intelligence and found the address.

From police making the request for information from the field, to them receiving the address, took two minutes.

"With an intelligence officer searching through analytics manually, we may never of found that address," Deputy Commissioner Steendam said.

"Or it would have taken a much longer period, an hour or even longer, and time is your friend in these circumstances when you're looking for someone.

"That will help us enormously in terms of the responsiveness of police."

Police were confident their technological woes were behind them, after tens of millions of dollars were blown on the failed upgrade to the LEAP database.

Developments such as this system, and tablet devices which will be made available for 8500 police in the next three or four years, will take the pressure of resources, she said.