The Victoria Police model has hardly changed since pubs closed at 6pm and shops shut at midday Saturday. Now Melbourne is a 24-hour city and police duties have expanded drastically. Domestic violence is no longer being ignored, mental health has become time-consuming for street police and ice (crystal meth) has reached plague proportions. In one way what Lay is proposing is not new. Chief Commissioners have always wanted cheaper public servants to fill non-core roles so police can fulfil essential duties. He also wants specialists to fill roles that police have struggled with. We have already started down this path with the external triple-0 system and outsourced speed camera duties.

Some plans are clearly winners, such as outsourcing control of police cells. Every day, cops who should be on the road are monitoring cells and feeding prisoners who can't be housed in real jails. So instead of catching crooks they are serving chooks to the ones they have already arrested. For years in England the security company G4S has run police cells. Indeed they have moved to building and providing back of house staff for major police stations. Lay wants super-sized police stations in districts. Again this is about getting more police on the street. Cops sitting behind the watch-house spend more time playing Angry Birds than dealing with angry men. We still run a model from when people actually went to police stations to report crime. Just as 24-hour fuel centres have replaced hundreds of small petrol stations, the same should happen with police. We don't need so many suburban stations.

The real challenge for Lay and his successors will be to convince the Police Association to give ground. He wants a more flexible workforce so he can move staff to where they are needed. This would include fewer police working traditional shifts and more being available at weekends and night. At present there are permanent positions that are filled and short of a disciplinary issue you couldn't move the incumbent with a spade. Plans to use retired detectives to review cold cases have been raised before and have merit, as does using unsworn and semi-sworn (Protective Service Officers) to fill expanded roles. The blue paper calls for more female and ethnic recruits so the force would better reflect the community it serves – surely a good thing.

On the matter of ethical standards Lay wants more background checks on recruits. New York's Mollen Commission Report on corruption found that many police that went bad had questionable histories before joining the department. Police in Victoria say recruits who struggle in the Academy are more likely to be problems on the road and to take long-term sick leave. And then there is the issue of the police computer and communication systems. It is a disaster, with hundreds of millions of dollars wasted in the last 25 years through a serious of decisions that would make Dr Strangelove blush. At present the technology is just slightly better than tin cans attached to string. Police still fax documents, while the email is used to share YouTube videos of dancing cats.

This is about flexibility. New pathways to join or return to the force, part-time police, using retired cops' specialist knowledge and allowing police to spend 80 per cent doing the job, not the present 54 per cent. The trouble is politicians win votes by promising more cops and opening new stations. There is nothing sexy about hiring accountants in cardigans to work in backroom positions. Loading Lay needs to win over the public but more importantly his own workforce, which is notoriously anti-change.

And the only thing the Police Association has ever given away are stubby holders at their Christmas party.