OUT & ABOUT
ALL IN A DAY’S WORK It’s 1pm on a Thursday afternoon in Shepparton and 10 offenders have already been arrested and processed through the police cells.
But the day is about to get even busier for officers from Shepparton Police Station, with a report of high schoolers brawling at a primary school, a suspicious package being located outside a shopping centre, a call to euthanise a kangaroo hit by a car, a man threatening staff at a supermarket, random traffic intercepts, breaking up family violence arguments in the main street and attending a high-speed crash between a car and a truck. Yet this is not an unusual afternoon for Shepparton police, who work at one of the busiest stations in the state. Senior Sergeant Brad Fisher is one of three senior sergeants overseeing the station’s uniform section and made the move to Shepparton – a regional city of more than 63,000 in northern Victoria – six years ago. “Honestly, it’s the best move I’ve ever made,” Sen Sgt Fisher said. “The lifestyle up here is magnificent and the work really appeals to me because you don’t have days where you wonder what you’re going
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to do, you’ve always got something on the go.” Data from the Crime Statistics Agency shows the Greater Shepparton area has been in Victoria’s top five local government areas for highest criminal incident rates over recent years. Sen Sgt Fisher said each of his officers have an average of 20 briefs of evidence in the process of being prepared or before the courts at any one time, compared to officers at some quieter stations who might complete the same number of briefs over an entire year. “When you look at the statistics, Shepparton is often above some of the stations you would expect to be flat-out, such as Frankston and Dandenong,” he said. “Our officers certainly hold their own throughout the state.” A prominent factor behind the city's crime is the region’s high youth unemployment rate of 17.5 per cent – the second highest in the state. “A big thing we see is youth crime,” Sen Sgt Fisher said.
