- Published:
- Thursday 13 August 2026 at 9:10 am
Victoria Police resources will be bolstered with an additional 150 Protective Services Officers (PSOs) announced today.
Efforts at retail areas will also be strengthened, with Operation Pulse to be expanded to more areas and to extend throughout next year.
The additional PSOs will support our existing presence on the public transport network, as well as assisting in hospital guard and crime scene duties to help free up police.
This means police can spend more time out in the community detecting and deterring crime.
The retail areas covered by Operation Pulse will be expanded to include busy suburban shopping strips and more shopping centres across the state.
The expansion of Operation Pulse will see more retail areas patrolled each day, increasing to six areas from the current four.
Current locations include Pacific Werribee, Bayside Frankston, Highpoint, Fountain Gate, Northland, Watergardens, Southland, Eastland and key CBD retail locations in Geelong.
It’s expected further locations will be confirmed in October with patrols to start occurring as soon as possible.
All shifts are voluntary, meaning there is no impact on the public transport system or frontline policing as officers are working at shopping centres in addition to existing shifts.
Since Operation Pulse commenced in December last year, it has led to:
- 1,766 arrests
- 3,562 charges laid with shop steal (1,798) and drug offences (288)
- 248 weapons seized
- 756 cautions issued
- 301 drugs seized
- 591 fines issued
Quotes attributable to Chief Commissioner Mike Bush:
“The expansion of operation pulse means we can deploy our resources to more areas where and when they are needed.”
“The additional PSOs will play a crucial role in ensuring our community is safe and feels safe”.
“Whether it's on our transport network, in shopping centres or local retail precincts, Victoria Police and PSOs will be highly visible, proactive and focused on holding offenders to account”.
“Operation Pulse has made a huge impact on the community. Retailers and shoppers are regularly telling us they are feeling safer because of our presence”.
“This approach not only helps us detect crime but stop it happening in the first place.”
Media Unit
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