‘I don’t think it has been more dangerous than it is today’: Police union boss says Victorian cops are under attack

Image: The Age/Jason South

Secretary of the Police Association, Senior Sergeant Wayne Gatt, says it’s a scary time to be a police officer.

“I don’t think it has been more dangerous than it is today to be a police officer in the state of Victoria,” he told 3AW’s Neil Mitchell.

The police union bosses’ comments come after two separate attacks on police overnight, a shooting in Sunbury, and the ramming of a police officer in Mont Albert.

“We’re on a trend where we’re seeing increasing levels of violence towards police officers,” he said.

“We’ve been calling it for a number of years now.”

Mr Gatt said the attacks should concern everyone.

“Our members are being assaulted with frightening regularity,” he said.

“This disrespect for police officers, for authoritative figures within our community, should be a concern to all of us.”

New penalties for those targeting police were introduced earlier this year, but Mr Gatt said they aren’t being used enough.

“We now have very strong penalties available for people who use vehicles and injure, these come with two year mandatory minimum penalties,” he said.

“We need to start seeing these penalties imposed by courts to send a message to these people.

“How long will it be before we lose another police officer?”

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