The region's new Inspector is excited to be working in a region he knows and loves while helping to make the community a safer place for everyone.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The division's new Investigation and Response Inspector, Bob Heaney, has been a police officer for 30 years.
Career
Throughout his career, Inspector Heaney has predominantly worked in Melbourne's western suburbs. After leaving the academy, he began his policing career in uniform at St Alban's police station before going on to complete stints at other stations in the western suburbs including at Laverton, Sunshine and Williamstown.
But it was when he gained accreditation as a detective that he really found his passion.
A detective for about the 20 past years of his career, it is an area of policing he loves - he is passionate about delving into an investigation and catching the crook, especially those involved in crimes that cause the most harm to members of the community.
After working as a Detective Sergeant at Footscray Criminal Investigation Unit for five years he was then promoted to the rank of Senior Sergeant and worked in uniform at Werribee and Wyndham North before moving across to Crime Command.
At Crime Command he worked in a number of roles as a Detective Senior Sergeant for eight years.
The majority of that time, five years, was spent investigating an array of crimes in the Armed Crimes Squad.
A fairly large squad, the detectives are responsible for investigating serious crimes across the state in which a shot is fired, such as armed robberies or aggravated burglaries.
Gaming venue armed robberies were a big issue while he was there, so he worked closely with hotels and the Australian Hotels Association.
The squad is also responsible for investigating shootings, illegal firearm trafficking, kidnappings and abductions.
From the Armed Crimes Squad, he moved across to the Joint Organised Crime Task Force. In this Task Force, Victoria Police works alongside the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission, Australian Federal Police and Border Force.
Inspector Heaney ran a multi-agency team for three years with the intention to reduce and try to stop the impact of transnational organised crime on Victorians - such as drug and firearm importations.
"Some of the biggest jobs I've ever done in my career I worked on during that time," he said.
While sometimes the investigation would start after an illegal importation was discovered at the docks or port - sparking an investigation to track down the people behind it and who was at the "top of the money tree" - other times they were able to stop the importation before it even arrived onshore.
One of Inspector Heaney's proudest achievements was when the task force seized 1.7 tonnes of methylamphetamine in America that was to be transported to Australia.
This year, prior to arriving in Ballarat, Inspector Heaney had been employed as the staff officer to the then Deputy Commissioner of Victoria Police, Shane Patton, for about six months.
A busy year for police across the state with plenty of changes amid COVID-19 restrictions, he said it was a great experience - as was being in the office when Patton was announced as the Chief Commissioner.
After this, Inspector Heaney worked with the Deputy Commissioner, Rick Nugent, before being promoted to Inspector with the move to Ballarat.
Improving community safety in the Ballarat region
While he has never worked in the region itself, he attended school in Ballarat and has been heavily involved in football clubs across the region for many years.
I've always had involvement with this area so when this role - the investigation and response manager's role - came up it was one that really appealed to me and one I wanted to go for
- Inspector Bob Heaney
"I've always had involvement with this area so when this role - the investigation and response manager's role - came up it was one that really appealed to me and one I wanted to go for," he said.
His role is to oversee the work of the detectives in the Sexual Offences and Child Abuse Investigation Team, Central Highlands Family Violence Investigation Unit, Ballarat and Moorabool Criminal Investigation units, Divisional Response and Crime Scene Services.
Inspector Heaney said his aim was to reduce the amount of harm to make the community a safer place.
While crime has reduced this year amid COVID restrictions, police are preparing for how crime trends could change as the state opens back up.
IN OTHER NEWS
Aside from this, Inspector Heaney would like to address the impact of high harm, high impact offending that has long been prevalent in Ballarat by implementing strategies to prevent and reduce it.
One of the biggest drivers of community harm in the region is drugs.
"It's a society-wide issue but regionally there is an over-representation of methylamphetamine use," he said.
Noting that he was now seeing the impact of drug distribution after working to prevent drugs from being imported into the country, he will prioritise stopping those who traffic them.
"I think we need to focus on targeting the mid-tier drug trafficker, to stop drugs filtering out into communities," he said.
Other ongoing issues are crimes like aggravated burglaries with the intention to steal cars and the associated offending that comes with that -high-risk driving, petrol theft and arson - as well as burglaries on rural properties where firearms are stolen and used to commit other serious crimes.
Strengthening police resources
Police are in the process of bringing the Divisional Response Unit detectives - currently based at Ballarat West - back into town so they can physically work alongside the Crime Investigation Unit.
Inspector Heaney said this move would strengthen the detectives' ability to respond to jobs in a quicker and more coordinated way.
In future, with the continued urban growth in the Moorabool end of the division, particularly around Bacchus Marsh, he said there would be an increase in cross-region offending in coming years - with more people travelling from metropolitan areas and offending within the division.
As a result, he will continue to support the Moorabool Crime Investigation Unit, which he said already achieves great results, and would look to bolster the team with extra resources, if required. This applies to all other crime categories too, such as family violence and sexual offences and child abuse.
While he has only been working in the region for less than two months, he looks forward to meeting more of his colleagues as well as people in the community.
"I am a real people person - there are some people up here that I've worked with over the years but many I haven't worked with before so it's really exciting for me to get to know everyone.
"I've always had good experiences in the region from a community perspective so I look forward to grow that and reengage with some people I haven't seen for a long time and meet lots of new people too."