Since its introduction in 2006 the Ballarat Crime Desk, with nine officers, has used fingerprinting, photography and other forensics to find evidence left by criminals long after they have left the scene.

According to new statistics, from March 2007 to February 2008 crime desk members have attended 2071 crime scenes, most of which were burglaries and car thefts.

Officer in charge Sergeant Patrick Arnts said the introduction of the desk meant crime victims only needed to talk to one police officer.

``The majority of the things we do are high volume crimes like burglaries, thefts from cars and stolen motor cars and our job is to assess whether there is a forensic aspect to the job,'' Sgt Arnts said.

``Because of the training we do, we have better skills to examine scenes and record valuable evidence. We are able to do finger print search very quickly, whereas before it could take up to two weeks,''

Sgt Arnts said.

Central Highlands Superintendent Andrew Allen said the term ``one stop shop'' applied to the crime desk.

``I think overall the success of it is we are providing a better service to victims of crime and ultimately freeing up the other members from having to attend scenes and having to ask victims to repeat

their stories two or three times on occasions,'' he said.

``Because we are outside the metropolitan area, having a crime scene member attend very quickly to the more serious incidents is valuable because we are able to secure the forensic evidence.''

Across Victoria there are 22 crime desks, with a further seven to be introduced this financial year.