Commander Paul Naylor announced the additional resources at the annual dinner of the Ballarat Branch of the Royal Victorian Association of Honorary Justices. 

“I applaud the Justices of the Peace for their commitment in running a five-day-a-week roster to assist the community with signing and witnessing documents,” he said. 

Justices of the Peace have signed and witnessed an average of more than 50,000 documents per annum at the Ballarat Signing Centre in the past three years – the third largest number in signing centres in Victoria and the largest in Country Victoria.

Chairperson of the Adult Parole Board of Victoria Peter Couzens, who was a guest speaker at the event, said a key focus that had come from the changing times since he had started in the role was finding a solution to the problem rather than just dispersing justice after the crime. 

Both speakers said the effect family violence had on young children carried forward to teenage years and crime.

Commander Naylor said 44 per cent of police work is now related to family violence. 

But the Judiciary and the police are now better focused on addressing family violence as a priority to meet the problem at its starting point.