Victoria Police identification badges, surveillance and radio gear, body armour and uniforms for sale

Breathalysers, bullet-proof vests and handcuffs are also among the 700 items reported by police as having been lost or stolen over the past five years, documents reveal.crime gangs could be in possession of Victoria Police identification badges, surveillance and radio gear, body armour and uniforms following the disappearance of hundreds of items of police equipment.However, there were no reports of lost or stolen guns in the 17 pages released through freedom of information. The missing items included:

■317 police badges.

■7 bullet-proof vests.

■62 pairs of handcuffs.

■16 batons.

■64 breathalysers.

Police could not say how many of the missing badges were recovered, or how many of the listed items were subsequently used in criminal activity.Last year, three men allegedly impersonating police were arrested after an attempted robbery in Kensington — but it is unclear if they were in possession of any legitimate police-issue equipment.Opposition police spokesman Andrew McIntosh described the losses — totalling $420,000 — as extraordinary and outrageous, warning that the equipment could fall into the hands of organised criminals, posing a very serious threat to the public."The question is, have any of these items turned up during acts of crime?" he said.The loss of police body armour was of great concern, given Parliament had recently passed legislation toughening laws for the possession of body armour, he said."Police badges and body armour are a real concern and would be worth big dollars in the crime world."Some of the equipment went missing from inside police stations, with badges disappearing from sensitive policing areas including the crime desk, the special operations group and the fraud and firearms units.
Corruption investigators also lost a voice recorder with a memory stick. The documents do not reveal what information it held.Along with unaccounted for surveillance equipment and mobile phones, more than a dozen Victoria Police hand-held radios valued at more than $3500 each have been lost.Victoria Police's Bec Fraser said the force had "a large recovery rate" of stolen items, particularly ID badges. She said the total cost of losses was comparable to other police jurisdictions and the number of items lost was "very low … considering the nature of policing and the amount of operational equipment currently utilised by Victoria Police".

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