On Saturday, October 11, Monash University journalism students attended 13 suburban railway stations between 8pm and 10pm to observe the activities of Protective Services Officers. This was conducted as part of an accountability study to assess the effectiveness of the State Government’s policy of having PSOs at every railway station.

Methodology

The students were given a list of 10 activities to observe, based on the job description for PSOs. The observations included:

• Were PSOs present? How many? Male or female?
• Did they "engage" with commuters?
• Did they maintain a "visible presence"?
• Did they patrol the platform? Car park? Surrounds?
• What percentage of time was spent at various locations?

The student’s observations were recorded on an online SurveyMonkey survey.

The State Government’s promise

The Napthine government provided $212 million for the recruitment of 940 PSOs with a promise of staffing every metropolitan and major regional railway station with two PSOs from 6pm until the last train. This month, the Government announced it had exceeded the target with the deployment of 950 PSOs.

Findings

Gender inequality: There was only one woman out of the 38 PSOs that Monash journalism students observed. The female officer was patrolling Sunshine station with three men.

The State Government’s PSO recruitment website includes a diversity policy that boasts a strong commitment to the representation of women. The students’ observations suggest it has a long way to go on this front.

Non-appearance: There were no Protective Services Officers at the Bell (South Morang line), Kananook (Pakenham line) or Diamond Creek (Hurstbridge) railway stations. PSO’s were observed at Glen Waverley, Ferntree Gully, North Richmond, Frankston, Hoppers Crossing, Berwick, Sunshine, Moonee Ponds, North Brighton, Melbourne Central railway stations.

The lack of PSO presence at three out of 13 stations indicates the State Government is yet to fulfill its commitment to staff every metropolitan railway station.

PSO Presence & Engagement

Over half of the students who participated in the PSO Watch suggested that the Protective Services Officers spent a significant amount of time away from public view. Much of the time was spent unseen and/or in a secure station building on the railway platform (see table). Elsewhere, PSOs spent time on the platform or patrolling nearby.

The Victoria Police/ PSO website states PSOs will monitor peak train services where they maintain a visible presence and engage with the community.

Protective Services Officers at North Brighton and Moonee Ponds station patrolled each of the platforms 90% and 75% of the time respectively. The PSOs at the North Brighton and Moonee Ponds train stations also actively surveyed the nearby surrounds.

Interaction with commuters: The findings suggest half of the Protective Services Officers were friendly and willing to engage in conversation with commuters. In a couple of instances, PSOs offered to walk commuters to their cars because of the dimly lit surrounds. The other 50 percent of PSOs observed did not acknowledge the general public, except to confront commuters suspected of wrongdoing.

At Moonee Ponds, PSOs checked the IDs of seven commuters over the two-hour period.

The role of PSOs includes “build and maintain rapport with commuters’’.

Patrol car parks: The majority of PSOs included car park patrols in their routine in the two-hour period observed.

Incidents

There were no notable altercations observed.  There were a number of minor incidents involving public drinking.  At Frankston, a young man was detained and taken to the police station.

Edited by Jack Lacy

Reported by Liang Liu, Alison Foletta, Bess Zewdie, Todd Shilton, Kaymolly Morrelle, Brendan Kelly, Jenan Taylor, Alexandra Suttie, Emily Rees, Mathew Andreazza, Janene Trickey, Jake Smethurst, Siobhan Capuana and Olivia Clarke.

Supervised by Bill Birnbauer