Tattoos, once the domain of fat sailors and paroled armed robbers, are now worn by skinny super-models and every second cocktail waitress killing time waiting to be discovered on reality TV.

And the world of policing is not immune to the tide of fashion. Policewomen were once decked out like air hostesses in a Dean Martin movie while most macho-male cops wore moustaches large enough to have their own postcodes.

Indeed this columnist once wore a "stache" more in keeping with a performer in a Village People cover band.

In crime investigations an initiative soon becomes a strategy that becomes the standard response to anything from shoplifting to murder.

Chief Commissioner Ken Lay has released his blue paper to tell the world the way of the future is taskforce policing, while politicians still want more blue shirts out on the road and a shiny new police station in every marginal seat on the map.

The Lay Law is simple. He wants to put a stake in the heart of the vampire rather than run around trying to give blood transfusions to all the victims. And Lay is in charge of the troops so if he wants taskforces he will get them. But is it all that new? Not at all.

When Mick Miller was Chief Commissioner 30 years ago he initiated as many taskforces as are now operating in Victoria. Indeed, as a senior constable in 1956 he was in charge of the Special Duties Gaming Branch, a taskforce that cleaned up Victoria's massive SP bookie cartels.

So in the uber modern world of crime detection what tasks are these taskforces tasked to do?

In the name of clarity, Naked City last week set up its own one-man taskforce to investigate Victoria's taskforces. Actually, we walked 500 metres down the road to the Victoria Police Centre for a chat with the man in charge, Deputy Commissioner Graham Ashton.

This is what we found. There are now 11 taskforces working on everything from international organised crime networks to individual sex offences. And success these days is not based just on locking up the baddies.

"We are getting some of our people out of the crook-catching business to have a broader look at problems involving industries that are vulnerable," Ashton says.

"The armed crime taskforce has been working with gaming venues to reduce their vulnerability to bandits.

"We are asking why out-of-the-way venues need to have $30,000 on the premises at 3am when there is only two customers and a half asleep security guard there at the time."

For decades Melbourne's crime hothouse has been the docks. When it comes to illicit products, stolen goods and major drug importations all roads lead to the wharfs. For years, police did little, treating the area as no-man's-land, while the industry refused to confront corruption due to fears of industrial unrest.

Taskforce Trident, which was established to deal with dock crime, has found some crime syndicates have a structured pay-off system, which includes a $50,000 bonus for  warning a container was hot, $600,000 for getting one out safely and $250,000 for officials to look the other way.

In the last 12 months, Trident, staffed by Victoria Police, Australian Federal Police, Customs, the Australian Tax Office, Australian Crime Commission and money-laundering experts from Austrac, has seized 177 tons of illicit tobacco, 225 kilograms of Ice, $8 million in assets and $500,000 in cash.

Sometimes, a taskforce investigates an individual or a syndicate but in others the ultimate aim is to help victims recover.

"Over the last three years we have been moving to a victim-oriented approach. The normal method is crook, prosecution brief then court and the victim can be lost in the process," Ashton says.

He says recent improvements in DNA technology has increased the chances of breakthroughs in cold case murder and sex crime cases."Victims know their cases are never closed."

Taskforce Sano is looking at clergy and institutional child abuse that stretches back decades. Investigators are dealing with 443 victims and have launched 26 prosecutions but the main priority is to help those who have had their childhood stolen.

"In many cases the offender may be dead but the victim is able to tell their story and finally feel validated," says Ashton. "Some were made to feel as if it was their fault and we are able to say, 'You are not at fault, you were the victim'."

Increasingly, police are looking to partnerships in taskforces because sophisticated crime groups don't work in one geographic location or in one criminal specialty.

An example is the Joint Organised Crime Taskforce (JOCTF) that includes Victoria and Federal Police, Customs, Australian Tax Office investigators and the Australian Crime Commission. In the last 12 months they have seized 639 kilograms of Ice, 6.4 kilograms of heroin, 26 kilograms of cocaine, 210 kilograms of pseudoephedrine and $1 million in assets. 

There is the counter-terrorism taskforce that is, ominously, flat out.

The Santiago taskforce has targeted violent crime gangs in the western and northern suburbs. Many have Middle Eastern crime links and have their sticky fingers in the drug, firearms and stolen car businesses. We saw a couple of them driving along in a look-at-me gangster car. One yelled an obscenity through his three remaining teeth before pretending his hand was a gun to mime a drive-by shooting in our direction.

Luckily, it wasn't loaded (the truth is if brains were buckshot these clowns couldn't hit a barn).

After years of neglect, the Echo taskforce was set up to deal with outlaw motorcycle gangs. It is no surprise that several key bikie officials have decided to retire. But there is still much work to be done as the gangs have infiltrated gyms, nightclubs, debt-collecting businesses, supermarket distribution and union activities.

Santiago and Echo investigators have found such strong links between their two target groups that police have decided to merge the taskforces.

The Purana taskforce is looking at a series of organised crime king pins linked to murders, drug trafficking and have also assigned the job of monitoring sports integrity, an area overseas experience shows is infiltrated by corrupt betting syndicates.

Some Purana investigators are quietly doing their financial homework waiting for the introduction of proposed unexplained wealth laws.

The first target, once the laws are passed, will be a drug dealer purported to be worth $30 million who was once a close friend of deceased gangland figure Carl Williams until they fell out big time. He owns a lovely multi-level home (including a delightful glass lift completed for the bargain price of $75,000) and has a garage full of luxury cars. Which is strange, as he hasn't worked since Bob Hawke wore Speedos in The Lodge.

While each taskforce has different priorities, most are determined to follow the money as it is clear destroying the financial muscle is more important than jailing crooks who can be quickly replaced.

Which is why the ATO trawling through receipts has become as important as detectives crashing through doors.  The Drug Taskforce has concentrated on hydroponic marijuana syndicates and in the past 12 months have seized 2.7 tons of cannabis, arrested 294 offenders, carried out 376 raids and seized 51,000 plants.

According to Ashton, the taskforce has found 44 house fires in Victoria were caused by hydroponic syndicates, "when the idiots have bypassed the electrical wiring".

The drug taskforce has found direct links between the Melbourne crops and international organised crime cartels, particularly Canadian syndicates whose leaders are of Vietnamese descent.

"For some reason they love Victoria. We are working with Canadian authorities to establish the connections."

Ashton said the taskforce model can be used for local crime problems, statewide issues or to combat national and international syndicates.

"We want to get upstream of crime rather than having a response-based approach. It is a tried and tested method."

Police Association Secretary, Detective Senior Sergeant Ron Iddles, has expressed concerns that taskforces could strip resources from frontline policing but Ashton says nothing can replace first responders.

"Taskforcing is not being done to the exclusion of front line policing. When people call they want police to get there fast but we want to reduce the need for them to call in the first place."