OPEN SEASON
01
With almost a million people set to descend on Victoria’s popular snow slopes this winter, police have been planning methodically for months for the massive influx of visitors.
Victoria Police has three seasonal snow stations – Mt Hotham, Falls Creek and Mt Buller – that open on the Queen’s Birthday weekend and stay manned 24 hours a day until the end of the season in late September.
Officers from nearby stations staff the seasonal stations, and undertake regular training and qualification in alpine skills, map reading and navigation and snowmobile and four-wheel-drive use.
Senior Sergeant Doug Incoll has been working in the region for 16 years and is the officer in charge of the Falls Creek and Mt Hotham stations.
Victoria Police has boosted its alpine policing model the past two snow seasons, sending alpine-trained officers from the Melbournebased Operations Response Unit (ORU) to the slopes.
With its combination of general duties policing, search and rescue and traffic and emergency management, all done under the threat of extreme and sudden weather changes, he said alpine policing is like no other job in Victoria Police. “In my view, it’s the highest risk environment police have to work in across Victoria,” Sen Sgt Incoll said. “Because of that, our officers have to attain a certain skill level before they even set foot on the resorts.”
8
POLICE LIFE | WINTER 2019
Sen Sgt Incoll said the snow resorts this season would again benefit from the extra numbers of ORU officers teaming with the local knowledge and experience of officers who have worked many years on the mountains. “We’ve had some great results with the ORU,” he said. “We’ve really benefitted from their valuable expertise they have in licensed venues, and their addition means we have a larger pool of police resources to draw from.”
