FRANKSTON’S reputation as a violent, drug-riddled frontier town has split a family – and angered a woman who enjoys living there.
Elizabeth (not her real name) says she and her partner bought a house in Frankston South two years ago.
“We were at first reluctant to buy in Frankston because of its reputation and because the state of the Frankston CBD always left me a little cold,” she said.
“Since then we have found ourselves very happy in our home, building a strong community and enjoying the beautiful landscape and beaches of our local area. My son has just started at a great local school and my four-year-old daughter is attending kindergarten. Everything feels great.”
But Elizabeth worries that living near Frankston CBD when her children are old enough to wander on their own – if it remains as it is today – would make her want to leave.
“It is draining to our morale to have to constantly explain to people who do not live in Frankston that where we live there is more than the chaos caused by the drug users.”
Elizabeth’s latest concerns were prompted by the refusal of her partner’s former wife, who lives in Toorak, to allow their 15-year-old daughter to catch the train to Frankston because of violence she has witnessed on the journey.
“My partner’s daughter, my stepdaughter for the past eight years, had just been given the freedom to catch the train from her high school to Frankston where we’d pick her up and bring her to our home in Frankston South,” she stated in a letter to The Times.
“After only the second week – on Tuesday 10 February – a violent incident occurred between a couple and a high school boy on the train nearing Kananook station.
“My stepdaughter was not harmed, but the incident affected her deeply. She even comforted another, even younger girl, as they sat huddled together until they could get off at Frankston.”
As a result of the violence, the mother wrote to Elizabeth and her partner when the girl was due to come for her third visit by train: “Can you please google Crime Rate Frankston? I think you’ll be pretty shocked. I had hoped that the area was better than its old reputation when I was younger but, actually, crime has risen considerably in the past five years – in particular violent assault.
“There are so many sex crimes against women and children that the police have had to form a separate office. Drug issues with ice are the highest in the state. It only takes one incident for our daughter’s life to be changed and I am not willing for her to take that risk.
“She has been on the train to your place twice and has already witnessed awful verbal and threatening violence. She has never been exposed to this stuff and why should she be? I spent some of my childhood in Werribee and it was awful. I don’t want that for her.”
Elizabeth now wants to know what Frankston Council is doing to bring “positive attention” to Frankston.
“Frankston is more than the pack of drug taking individuals that seem to line the CBD at every turn, but this is what the outside world sees and reads about,” she said.
“We are very upset at how this reputation has affected our family arrangement.”
Frankston police inspector Tony Silva said “a number of issues could contribute to some people having the perception” that Frankston is a dangerous place. “It’s a major transport hub in a busy entertainment district with large passenger volumes at all hours,” he said.
“But our data shows that the prevalence of criminal, antisocial and other offending behaviour on the Frankston line is not disproportionate to reported offending on other lines.
“The perceptions of safety survey data for the Frankston line does not differ greatly from other lines across the metropolitan area. From what we can see, Frankston is no more prone to criminal activity than any other area of the transport network.”
He said the detection rate for drug offences at Frankston railway station is “not disproportionate to anywhere else”.
However, he admitted the use and prevalence of ice (crystalline methylamphetamine) worried Frankston police and emergency services, parents and families as well as the wider community.
Police data suggests about 20 per cent of detected ice users committed a violent crime during 2013-14. It indicates a significant rise in the frequency of use and availability of ice, with related offences almost tripling from 1274 in 2010 to 3748 in 2014.
Inspector Silva said police were working alongside Transit Safety Division police, Metro Trains, PTV and the local community to improve perceptions of safety. The railway precinct’s CCTV camera system is monitored and of good quality.
He said the design of the precinct was constantly being reviewed to ensure that, where required, steps can be taken to deter and prevent criminal and antisocial behaviour.
“PSOs are on duty, actively patrolling every railway station between Flinders St and Frankston every night of the week from 6pm to last train.
“This year, Transit Safety Division will be conducting Operation ‘Safeguard’ alongside Frankston police, PSOs, sheriff’s office, PTV authorised officers, local government and other agencies to provide a co-ordinated, highly visible and sustainable policing effort that is designed to provide re-assurance and support to the community.
“We will continue to review and deliver policing services so that perceptions of safety improve.”
There are some good signs: This year, crimes against people and property have dropped compared to last year – with fewer people becoming victims of crime.
Community partnerships and local responses to local problems work best at preventing violence, he said.
Coordinated responses, strategies and programs involving Maori islanders to establish relationships with disengaged youth, partnerships with DHS, Centrelink and the courts to assist repeat offenders, formation of a crime prevention alliance with local business and retail leaders to prevent crime, working with Peninsula Health, justice system and drug treatment services to test new methods to break the cycle of offending by getting druggies into the best treatment and support, and working with the local community to encourage a ‘guardian’ approach.
Inspector Silva said the state government’s commitment of $50 million to transform the Frankston station precinct would improve the perception – and, hopefully, the reality – of safety in Frankston.
