“Frontline police numbers have fallen under Labor with Police Association figures showing there are now 190 fewer uniform officers than in 2013 despite Victoria's population increasing by over half a million.”
What RMIT ABC Fact Check found
Mr O'Donohue's claim is misleading. The figure he cites covers substantially more than the period Labor has been in office, so cannot be used to assess the record of just one government. There is also no agreed definition of what "the front line" means. One UK survey showed that the public takes it to mean different things. The definition relied on by Mr O'Donohue is different from that used by Victoria Police, for example, whose data shows frontline police increased under Labor by around 1,0...
Their words, from the summary they publish with the rating.
In short
Edward O'Donohue (Victorian opposition police spokesman) made this claim around 11 September 2018. RMIT ABC Fact Check (Australia) looked into it and published its finding on 9 November 2018, 59 days later. Its rating was “Misleading”.
Where the claim appeared
- vic.liberal.org.auhttps://vic.liberal.org.au/News/2018-09-11/expanding-support-and-care-for-first-responders
- matthewguy.com.auhttps://www.matthewguy.com.au/media-release/odonohue-make-victoria-safe-more-psos-for-lil…
Links recorded by RMIT ABC Fact Check. Some posts may have been deleted since.
This check was done by RMIT ABC Fact Check, not by DoesItStand. We list it so you can find it. Their full evidence and reasoning are in their article.