When it comes to violent brawls, does Victoria need more ‘force’?

Early on Sunday morning, a violent brawl erupted on the streets of the inner-Melbourne suburb of Collingwood, injuring six people, including one critically. About 200 people were involved in the brawl, many of them African Australians or of Pacific Islander descent.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison was quick to denounce the violence, implying that Victoria Police was less capable at dealing with violence of this sort than its New South Wales counterpart. He said the then NSW police commissioner, Andrew Scipione, had changed the name of the police service to the police force: “Law and order means something in New South Wales … in my home city, we have a police force that is a force.”

Morrison was suggesting a name change had brought with it a different culture: one that is tougher on and more effective at dealing with the kind of violence seen in Collingwood. But is he right?