The region's Acting Superintendent, Paul Bertoncello, said police would continue to enforce the differing restrictions between regional Victoria and metropolitan Melbourne this weekend.

"We will still have a commitment to making sure we are policing the Chief Health Officer's directions as they apply to people from Melbourne not being allowed to travel to regional Victoria," he told The Courier.

He said that reconnection for families and friends across the state was still "a little way off" and many police officers, just like others in the community, had been separated from loved ones and had needed to abide by restrictions.

He asked the community not to "sprint to the finish line" but to wait a little bit longer to reunite with loved ones and experience further eased restrictions in coming weeks.

Acting Superintendent Bertoncello added police would continue to enforce the directions in terms of gatherings, caps at hospitality venues and mask wearing until the directions changed.

"Unfortunately we are not quite there yet but we are almost there. Now's not the time to start taking advantage or doing anything that puts this journey at risk."

He said police were continuing to plan how to work with the community "to maintain the great efforts we've had so far" as the community moves into the much-anticipated next stage of reopening when the state reaches the target of 80 per cent of eligible Victorians being double vaccinated.

"Future planning is certainly on our radar. That extends into summer and planning for events and the movement of people from Melbourne and from across the country into regional Victoria as families reunite after such a long period of isolation," Acting Superintendent Bertoncello said.

He confirmed most members from the Ballarat region who had been deployed to patrolling the border with New South Wales or sent down to Melbourne had now largely returned.

"That's an effective increase in resourcing locally that comes at a time we're going to need it with increased traffic flow, tourism, and all the other economic benefits that come from people moving across the state."

He said returned resourcing was welcomed and "ultimately enables us to do a better job and to increase our capacity to deliver community safety".

"We've had a lot of broad strategies that we've developed over the last 12 to 18 months that we've either had to pause or we've had to hold until we have the people back in place to deliver them."

These strategies largely relate to police's divisional priorities for the year, centering around public order, harm reduction, road policing and youth.

Eased restrictions will allow police to shift their focus from enforcing health directives and return to core policing activities to deliver community safety, he said.

"It's very much at the front of our minds and we are getting people back, which takes pressure off some of the people who have been working really hard in the meantime with reduced capacity.

"It's all looking very positive as we move into November and the Christmas period."

But he reiterated that delivering community safety was not just the role of police.

"Delivering community safety is completely dependent on the community working with us to do it.

"We are very thankful for the close relationships we have with the vast majority of our community and thank them for supporting us through the last 15-18 months.

"We just ask that the community sticks with us while we get through the next few weeks and hopefully we can then all re-engage with 'normal life' through the Christmas period."

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