UPDATE: JOHN Brumby denies his $673m promise to boost police by nearly 2000 over five years aims to trump the Opposition's pledge for 1600 new cops over four.

The almost 2000 extra police have been promised for Victoria by the Brumby Government in a $673 million budget splash, the Herald Sun reports.

Brumby's pledge comes soon after the Opposition pledged to provide Victoria Police with an extra 1600 frontline officers over four years.

The Government's biggest single one-off boost to police numbers in Victoria’s history will be made over five years and will cost $673 million.

The promise includes 1700 new police and 266 redeployed police office workers to go on the beat.

Mr Brumby said the promise was not a bid to trump the state Opposition's pledge of 1600 police officers over four years.

Why are we doing it? We are doing it because our liveability is so important to our state. Driving down alcohol-fuelled violence is important to our state. Tackling knife crime and the knife culture is so important.''

“We have funded this commitment in our budget,'' he said.

"This is a lot of new recruits and I think you are going to see a lot of interest in these positions.

“We could have waited until the election. We brought this forward.''

Mr Brumby said the state’s economic management through the global financial crisis gave it the budget capacity to fund a new generation of police officers.

Mr Brumby said Victoria would be safer because of the initiative.

“It’s designed to drive down crime, to make sure Victorians are safe but also that they feel safe,” Mr Brumby said.

Mr Brumby said he had met with the Police Commissioner Simon Overland several times to nut out how many police were required in Victoria.

“(Police Minister) Bob (Cameron) and I, over the last few months and in the run up to the budget have had a number of discussions with the chief commissioner about the additional resources that he would want, to be able to truly tackle knife crime, to truly drive down the problems with alcohol-fuelled violence," Mr Brumby said.

"His job is to make sure Victorians feel safe. These numbers give him the tools to do the job.''

Police Commissioner Simon Overland said today he would avoid being drawn into the political debate and would not make comparisons between the State and Opposition offer for policing.

Cops back on the beat

As exclusively revealed by the Herald Sun this morning, Mr Brumby will take 266 police officers off administrative duties and put them back on patrol, in a major election year push for votes.

Chief Commissioner Simon Overland has outlined a plan to revolutionise the force, filling clerical roles with public servants and making all officers work operational shifts regularly.

Mr Overland spoke to heraldsun.com.au in response to this morning's exclusive report about more cops returning to the beat.

“It’s consistent with where I’ve been trying to go in the time I’ve been in the role, I’ve been talking about having every officer what I call operationally ready, operationally deployable,” Mr Overland told MTR Radio.

“From my end it doesn’t matter where you work, I want you ready to work an operational shift if that’s what we need and available to work operational shifts and in fact work operational shifts on a pretty regular basis.”

Mr Overland said clerical staff performed important work within the police force, but public servants would be cheaper to handle the duties.

“I think it’s a much better use of our resources if we’ve got public servants doing more administrative, clerical, communication roles and that will enable me to get more police out onto the streets which I think is what the community wants,” he said.

“Without wanting to sound disrespectful public servants are lower cost than police so it makes sense to move in this direction.

“This is absolutely consistent with the direction I want to go in.”

It is also a clear indication Mr Brumby wants a greater say on where police forces are deployed.

The Herald Sun can reveal the Government will earmark more than $112 million to hire public servants to replace police so they can return from back-office jobs of answering phones and filing reports to the front line of policing.

What's in the plan

The cash includes $561 million over five years to recruit, train and employ 1700 extra frontline police.

Another $73.9 million over four years will pay to redeploy 200 police to the front line, and $38.4 million to release 66 police officers from phone answering.

The boost will see 604 more police on the street by June 2011, with more than 300-a-year added until June 2015.

Mr Brumby said the massive investment in extra police was a recognition of the state’s population growth, the time-consuming nature of street policing and the complexity of the police work.

He said priorities for the government included reducing alcohol-fuelled assaults, the growing knife culture and the “lack of respect some people have for each other”.

He said the Government was “well on its way” to delivering the 350 extra police promised at the last election.

In the budget leak today, Mr Brumby also promised more cash for a law-and-order focus.

Mr Brumby today also announced that the $22 million for 55 more youth workers to tackle poor behaviour, supervised bail and reducing the use of knives.

“The youth workers will also support police dealing with young people in crime hotspots,” he said.

Attorney General Rob Hulls said the government would also spend $129.4 million to reduce delays in the court system, employ new judges, boost legal aid, introduce new personal safety orders and improve mediation in child protection cases and review future legal needs.

The Brumby Government's plan is believed to provide $74 million extra for Mr Overland to hire clerical staff to relieve 200 officers from non-operational roles.

These experienced officers are expected to return to frontline roles in regional and metropolitan areas this year.

Another $38 million is expected to be included in Tuesday's Budget to release 66 officers from telephone duties at the regional emergency services dispatch centres over the next four years.

The Budget will also devote $22 million to hiring 55 youth workers in a bid to reduce knife violence.

The program will establish a response team to work with police in crime hot spots.

The Budget is also expected to introduce a behavioural change program for youths on bail for carrying knives.

As part of its Save Our Streets campaign, the police union this month handed in the largest petition in State Parliament history, calling for more cops on the beat.

The petition, signed by more than 70,000 Victorians, calls for 3000 extra officers.

The 2008-09 Productivity Commission report found there were only 259 police for every 100,000 Victorians - the lowest level in the country. Mr Brumby points to the extra 1920 officers hired during Labor's 11 years in power as a sign of the Government's commitment to fighting crime and winning back the streets from thugs and hoons.

The State Government has exceeded its 2006 election promise of 350 new cops with the hiring of more than 520, including operational response and transit police, in the past four years.

But the union claims there are 12 police stations around the state that have fewer frontline cops on their rosters than in 1999.

Brumby trumps Opposition plan

The Opposition promised in a $400 million program revealed this month to provide Victoria Police with an extra 1600 frontline officers over four years.

Opposition Leader Ted Baillieu pledged to lure officers from interstate and gain new recruits with an $8 million boost for the Police Academy.

Mr Baillieu said the planned initiatives would be financed by clawing back $140 million in government advertising and spending about $270 million from budget surpluses over four years.

Read more on the Herald Sun.