Assistant Commissioner Debra Abbott said the 24 hour assistance line was a Victorian first that would free up resources that could otherwise be responding to time-critical calls.

“These services will improve the way in which we prioritise and respond to both urgent and non-urgent matters,” she said.

“We know that almost 30 per cent of calls to Triple Zero are for non-urgent matters and the police assistance line is expected to divert some of these calls.”

Terang police Sergeant Danny Brown welcomed the new project.

“From our perspective it’s a really good thing,” he said. 

“It won’t clog up the triple zero line and it will enable community members to provide short, sharp information to the call centre to get police to where they need to be.”

The hotline will be fully operational by 2020.

Sergeant Brown said community members were still encouraged to call triple zero for police attendance until then.

“It’s also important to note that our door is always open,” he said. 

“This new hotline will be a great point of contact but we don’t want to lose that face-to-face contact with our community.”

The assistance line will be based in Ballarat and staffed by police and civilian employees.