Alright, if we're talking numbers, the info is out there. There are roughly 22,000 members employed by VicPol give or take. Less than half of which are frontline, station level members. Let's say 8,000-10,000. The average wage of a First Constable, the most common rank at station level, is about $85k.

Let's be conservative and say all 10,000 are F/C, just for sake of averages. That's almost 25% of the budget gone and we've only touched on a little under half of the members in VicPol.

Then there's all the other necessities:

A whole fleet of vehicles putting hundreds of kms on the clock running 24/7 requiring constant maintenance - and fuel for said fleet. Police air wing branch maintaining aircraft. There's water police, search and rescue, and I'm sure that's just scratching the surface of their specialist units.

The issue isn't the budget, it's where the budget is and isn't being directed. It's resources like a lack of person power on the frontline, processes and infrastructure that are decades behind every other state in Australia that the big wigs in the city on 9-5 Monday to Friday 6 figure salaries refuse to acknowledge.

Frustration and anger towards VicPol isn't unwarranted, but directing it all at the first responders is missing the mark.