‘Like a leaf blower’: Council security guards set to patrol just one suburb

Ratepayer-funded private security guards will patrol the streets of Truganina every night from next week in an expansion of the trend of Melbourne councils taking crime prevention into their own hands.

But the move has been branded as a “leaf blower” solution that will push criminal and problem behaviour into other areas, given the patrols will be limited to part of one suburb.

Wyndham city councillor Preet Singh, with one of the private security patrol cars that will operate within Truganina. 

The uniformed security officers will not carry weapons and won’t have powers of arrest or to issue fines. They will be trained to call police if they see a suspected crime.

The officers will patrol the sprawling outer western suburb of Truganina for six months, targeting public spaces and business areas, in a contentious trial that was approved by the Wyndham City Council in June.

Just two marked patrol cars will patrol part of Truganina between the hours of 10pm and 6am.

The trial, which will cost ratepayers $372,000, was an election promise of Wyndham councillor and former Liberal state candidate Preet Singh, who pledged to increase security in his council ward during last year’s council elections.

Singh said he was regularly contacted by residents who had been victims of crime or held concerns about community safety.

“Safety has been a burning issue for a long time, and a lot of residents have raised it,” he said. “In Truganina itself we have seen a significant increase in the number of incidents like break-ins, home invasions. So look, these are quite concerning incidents. And the trial aims to prevent and deter this sort of behaviour and promote a sense of safety.”

Singh said the trial was “only a modest investment” within Wyndham’s annual budget of about $800 million, and that any decision on extending it would be a matter for the council to consider in the future.

The City of Melbourne and the City of Maribyrnong have also funded trials of private security patrols this year.

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West Justice chief executive Melissa Hardham said the trial was “a missed opportunity”, and that security patrols would do nothing to solve the causes of crime.

“It might be sort of a zero-sum game, where the council is spending all this money, but the problem is not really being solved,” Hardham said. “It’s just moving the problem into another LGA, like a leaf blower.”

She said the council should have invested its resources in two social workers instead.

“Social workers would be better placed to deal with people experiencing mental health challenges or a young person escaping a situation of family violence in the home,” she said.

“We really think that no matter what training a private security guard receives … it will be inadequate for dealing with someone who is highly distressed.”

Five Wyndham councillors spoke against the trial when it was debated at a council meeting in June.

Among them was Larry Zhao, who represents the neighbouring ward of Williams Landing and pushed for its expansion into his ward.

Zhao criticised the trial as a case of “budget blackmail” and said all ratepayers were unfairly funding a program that would benefit only one part of Wyndham. Councillors did not have an option to vote on the trial in isolation because it was included within the overall 2025-26 budget.

“That’s why I call it budget blackmail,” Zhao said. “It shouldn’t be happening. First thing, security is a state government issue; it’s not council’s issue.”

Total reported criminal incidents in Wyndham jumped 23.3 per cent in the year to June. But crime statistics also show that Wyndham’s crime rate was 25 per cent lower than greater Melbourne’s in the year to June, and that the number of criminal incidents per person is barely higher than it was 10 years ago.

Truganina had the fifth-highest number of reported crimes among suburbs in Wyndham last year, at 1733 incidents, behind Werribee, Tarneit, Hoppers Crossing and Point Cook.

In a statement, Wyndham council said patrols would focus on prevention and deterrence, including proactive checks of priority locations.

Wyndham City will evaluate the trial using operational and incident data, as well as input from Victoria Police and other partner agencies, the council said.

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