After an alleged terrorist threat against them last April, uniformed police in Victoria began  wearing body armour and keeping their handguns with them in all interactions with the public.

But civilian staff in police stations do not have such protections. Curtis Cheng, an accountant who had worked for NSW Police for 17 years, was shot in the back of the head as he left work at Parramatta police headquarters last Friday.

Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton said yesterday he did not want to turn police stations in this state into "fortresses".

However, Victoria Police executive command members met early on Monday to review whether the security around police stations, facilities and buildings across the state was adequate.

In a statement, police said security measures had been "progressively increasing" while threat assessments were undertaken, and that this "will continue to occur".

Mr Ashton also wrote to all staff, both sworn and unsworn, to remind them to be "vigilant about their safety".
 
"They have been provided specific advice on how they can keep themselves, their colleagues and their work places safe," he said.

Police Association secretary Ron Iddles said that at the two major police centres in Melbourne, Flinders Street and Spencer Street, protective service officers were already doing patrols, but that security should be re-evaluated in the light of recent threats.

"Quite clearly there needs to be minimum standards across the state for security on all police complexes, and the ones that are higher risk ... we probably need to review the standards".

Both the man who was killed in NSW and the special constable who shot him dead were members of the Community and Public Sector Union. A union spokesman said of the union yesterday: "everyone is on edge and tense."