Premier Daniel Andrews and Deputy Commissioner Andrew Crisp. More police will be assigned as first responders and more will be rostered to work nightshift. Credit:Penny Stephens Three quarters of Victoria's police districts have fewer uniformed officers than 15 months ago, with the cuts felt deepest in crime-riddled suburbs in Melbourne's north-west and south-east. In some of these suburbs, the rate of offending has leapt by double-digits, while the number of first-responder officers has dwindled by a similar amount. The analysis shows that Victoria Police is increasingly redeploying uniformed officers from emergency duties at the same time as it reduces the opening hours of police stations, a controversial policy it says is designed to free-up front-line police. Just last month, Endeavour Hills, in Melbourne's booming south-east, had its opening times cut significantly.

It also brings into focus Victoria Police's push to modernise the force. This strategy is designed to more effectively investigate crime by making the force increasingly nimble and pro-active, and favours taskforces at the expense of front-line officers. Officers who are in taskforces, such as family violence teams, do not respond to emergency calls, other than in exceptional circumstances.

It has also emerged that: A new, state-of-the-art Victoria Police resourcing model to inform government of demand, and eliminate the funding of police officers as a political issue, is the third model to be implemented in recent years;

The Police Association claimed the number of front-line officers was even lower than police data suggested;

An extra 40 officers have gone on leave without pay in the past 15 months, while the force has also lost 498 members to attrition;

A crime-reporting hotline and website will be introduced to reduce the strain on officers, replicating programs which have existed for years in most other states; and

The force committed to greater clarity about how it was allocating its officers. Deputy Commissioner Andrew Crisp said the analysis outlined the extent of the shift in the force's priorities, from resourcing general police in each district, to bolstering units which targeted particular crimes. Despite an increase of 218 full-time police across the force since last June, the number of officers allocated to front-line duties has dropped by nearly the same amount during the same period. "We've had to change the way we do our business," Mr Crisp said.

Shortly after the Andrews government was elected, it vowed to back the force's push to modernise. It committed to only funding increased numbers of officers when they had been requested by Victoria Police, rather than when it was politically desirable, and to refrain from meddling in how these resources were allocated. Both points had been raised in the blue paper, a report on the future of Victoria Police, released by Mr Ashton's predecessor Ken Lay in 2014. But the youth crime issue – underlined by riots at justice centres and increased media coverage of home invasions, police chases and carjackings by teenagers – has hounded the government since March. Mr Crisp, who was interviewed before it emerged the government would commit to such a huge increase in police numbers, said most of the officers removed from the front line had been kept in the same geographic area.

But only one of the four police regions, the Western area which covers parts of regional Victoria, has increased its total number of officers since June last year. Mr Crisp said that 300 new officers would start graduating early next year, and many were set to be allocated to the north-west. He said this region had often been the first area where graduates worked, which could explain the current shortfall in resources. Police Minister Lisa Neville would not elaborate about any future announcement regarding police numbers, but acknowledged that a hard core of youth offenders had caused significant trauma. She said that pressures on police resources had been eased by the recruitment of 400 custody officers, 250 of whom have started, freeing police for other duties.

The recruitment of 406 police funded in this year's Budget had also been brought forward. "There are more police now than when we first came to government, and we have brought in stronger laws to hold perpetrators to account," she said. On Thursday Ms Neville said the government knew there was a need for more police and that it had been working with Victoria Police on the best allocation model for the future. "There is no question that our police are under pressure, that with population demand, with crime rates going up that we need more police out there," Ms Neville said. At a press conference she would not comment on "speculation" about police resources.

Each quarter, Victoria Police publishes figures on how many officers are stationed in each of its 55 police service areas, which are closely aligned to council boundaries. The numbers also detail how many officers are stationed in other areas of the force, such as operational support and corporate sections. The regions hardest hit by a reduction in front-line police are in Melbourne's crime-plagued north-west: Melton (down 14 per cent), Brimbank (down 11 per cent), Wyndham (down 11 per cent) and Hume (down 10 per cent). Combined, those areas have 65 fewer uniformed police than they did in June last year. In Moreland, a policing area which stretches from Fitzroy North to Glenroy, the average police officer has 167 crimes to deal with; more than 70 offences higher than the state average. Glen Eira, which includes a large chunk of the bayside suburbs, from St Kilda East to Beaumaris, has 2636 people per police officer – about 2½ times the state average.

Statewide, the figures show the average number of Victorians served by for each uniformed officer has jumped by 60 in the past 15 months. An average of 16 more crimes were committed per front-line officer during the same period. Loading While front-line police numbers have been consistently shrinking, some units have won big increases in resources. The newly introduced counter terrorism command has absorbed 87 police since it was established in December last year. Click through below to see how many front-line police are in your area: