'Ridiculous': Violent protests draining Victoria Police resources

Victoria Shadow Police Minister Brad Battin claims thousands of police shifts are being lost every year as officers are diverted to manage increasingly disruptive protests. “The amount of police that we have to put to babysit those that want to protest or threaten violence in Victoria is ridiculous,” Mr Battin told News24 host Chris Kenny. “We’ve already got 1,500 vacancies; we know we need to recruit more police. “The amount of hours, it is tens of thousands of shifts that we lose each year to protests here in Melbourne.”