Ballarat and Moorabool police chief Andrew Allen.
Faster police response times, the city’s most visible police presence ever and three specialised “response zones” – that’s Superintendent Andrew Allen’s vision for policing in Ballarat.Yesterday, the Ballarat and Moorabool police Divisional Commander notched up 37 years as a member of Victoria Police, having also recently marked four years’ service as the region’s top cop.With two new police stations scheduled to be built, upgrades to the Dana Street police complex in the works and even more members hitting the streets, all eyes are on the future for local police.But it’s the past – particularly his first week in Ballarat – which has perhaps shaped Superintendent Allen’s current tenure more than what may come.On November 19, 2007, his second official day on the job having just transferred from Geelong, a 4am phone call told of 27 miners trapped underground at a Mt Clear goldmine.This was Superintendent Allen’s “baptism of fire” in Ballarat.“That’s not your normal run-of-the-mill callout – not what I’ve been used to anyway,” he said. “There’s not too many mines in Geelong.”The story of the miners’ rescue after five hours underground went national and even international, placing the microscope squarely on the rescue itself, led by police.“It was a critical incident and the potential for disaster was there – particularly because Beaconsfield (mining disaster) was still fresh in people’s minds,” he said.“It was a significant police response and fortunately we’ve had no mine entrapments since.”Since that hectic first week, Superintendent Allen has overseen changes to policing in Ballarat which place a greater emphasis on social justice and involvement in non-traditional policing areas.“Policing is now about more than just traffic enforcement and catching crooks,” he said.“The three key areas which I’ve seen (increase) since coming to Ballarat are family violence, our involvement with mental illness and youth crime and disengagement.“So we look to do the prevention before the harm – that’s our changed role.”Superintendent Allen said increasing amounts of police time was being devoted to family violence, a load now being helped by more police and a permanent family violence unit.“The rise in family violence is not unique to Ballarat, but we are ahead of the state,” he said.“The increase in police numbers have allowed us to put our front-line troops into family violence work.”But Ballarat is not just receiving new police, with blueprints for two new police stations being finalised by planners in the coming months. The stations, due for Ballarat North and the city’s south-west growth corridor, will not be 24-hour but will provide three “response zones” aimed at reducing police response times.“I’m hoping to see infrastructure works at Ballarat North begin in 2012,” Superintendent Allen said.“Whether (the other station) is in Sebastopol, or close to Sebastopol, we have to do what we think is the best thing for the growing community.”