Police Association Victoria secretary Detective Senior Sergeant Ron Iddles said a lack of resources was forcing police to be dragged away from regular duties.

From Friday until Sunday, a divisional van will not operate in Horsham in the morning, forcing highway patrol officers to leave their posts, return to the station to pick up another officer and then respond to call-outs.

“You’re taking the highway patrol away from road traffic policing and they’re now attending to normal calls the divisional van would attend to,” he said.

“Basically you’re shifting seats on the Titanic and all it means is there’s a shortage of resources.”

Mr Iddles said removing police from highway patrol contradicted Victoria Police’s focus on road trauma. 

“The community deserves to feel safe in their homes and on the street, but also the number one priority for Victoria Police is road trauma and road accidents,” he said. 

Last year, six in every 10 deaths on Victorian roads were on country roads.

Mr Iddles said the problems caused by staffing shortages would flare up again next month.

“In the first 10 days of November there are again issues and the highway patrol will be the first response to incidents up until 9am or 10am,” he said.

“There’s quite clearly a shortage of police in Horsham because over the next two weeks they’re struggling to put the divisional van on the road in the morning and as such they have requested the highway patrol to help them out.”

Mr Iddles said with full staffing levels a divisional van with two police officers attended to call-outs while the highway patrol policed Wimmera roads.

“Instead of patrolling the highway, the highway patrol will have to go out to the police station and pick up a uniform member and attend calls,” he said.

Mr Iddles said the government needed to increase police resources to cover for periods where staff were on leave.

“Members have to leave, but it comes down to the police station running on a minimum staffing level and this is not the only place across Victoria where you’ve got issues,” he said.

Mr Iddles confirmed he had been in discussions with the government and Shadow Police Minister Wade Noonan.

“Coming up to the election, quite clearly there needs to be more police and we’ll lobby both sides of politics,” he said.

Mr Iddles said staffing shortages were not the only issue affecting Wimmera policing, with changes to night shifts meaning there were less police covering smaller towns.

“Over the past three months, particularly on night shift, they’ve changed to a model where there is only one member at Kaniva, Dimboola or Nhill,” he said.

“There used to be a system where Dimboola, Kaniva and Nhill all had someone available for calls from 11pm and after, and that’s now changed. 

“What we’ve seen in the past six months is a reduction in services, which is attributed to a lack of resources issues – not just for Horsham but other areas too.” 

A Police Minister Kim Wells spokesman said 16 additional officers were on the beat in division four of the western region, which covers the Wimmera.

“The Horsham community and surrounding areas can be assured they receive a 24-hour police response from front-line officers every day of the year,” he said. 

“In addition there are specialist police servicing the whole division.” 

The spokesman said Chief Commissioner Ken Lay determined operational matters and staffing requirements.