THE State Government and Victoria Police will step up their efforts to tackle crime in Sunshine and St Albans with additional patrols, but the community says it is not enough.

Premier John Brumby, Police Minister Bob Cameron and Police Chief Commissioner Simon Overland met at St Albans Railway Station on Wednesday to announce additional patrols around Brimbank crime hot spots by uniform police, transit members, the dog squad, the mounted branch and air-wing.

The government denied the crackdown had sprung from recent uproar over attacks on Indian students across Melbourne.

The new measures will not see more permanent police in Brimbank but will involve a re-shuffling of resources from the existing 1100 police officers in Victoria.

“We need to take an intelligence driven process. We know that, as we fix problems, we will displace the problem and it will move somewhere else. So, putting permanent police in place is not always the appropriate thing to do,” Mr Overland said.

“We need to be able to move the resource to where the problems are.”

Sunshine Residents and Ratepayers Association president Darlene Reilly welcomed the new initiatives but said it wasn’t enough.

“We welcome the targeting but don’t believe it goes far enough,” she said.

“The people who are acting anti-socially tend to lay low and will recognise the police are targeting. As soon as they’re gone they’ll act like the street’s their own again.

“We need an increase in numbers every day...telling people (potential crooks) that you’re not safe and telling the community that they are safe.”

The crackdown will mirror covert operations conducted recently in the West and will be targeted at reducing crime and robbery around train stations.

Mr Overland said the new measures would be in place as long as necessary.