Victoria Police has been hit with another leadership shake-up, with a second top cop leaving the force in less than a week.

Deputy Commissioner Neil Paterson, whose role will officially end when his contract expires in July, has gone on leave.

Acting Chief Commissioner Rick Nugent said Paterson’s exit came after 37 years in the force.

“Neil has been a strong advocate of many issues and has dedicated so much of his life to policing,” Nugent said on Friday.

Paterson had oversight of regional operations along with the state emergencies and support command.

Last November, he was referred to the state’s anti-corruption commission, over an alleged road rage incident outside the city campus of Haileybury, a private school, in July last year.

The Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission investigated whether Paterson misused his position and authority during a verbal altercation and subsequent correspondence with a school parent.

By law, Victoria Police must refer complaints against officers with a rank of assistant commissioner and above to IBAC.

Former chief commissioner Shane Patton resigned from his job on Sunday following a damning no-confidence vote by rank and file officers.

Of the 14,571 Police Association union members who voted on the no-confidence motion, more than 12,600 – or 87 per cent – said Patton should not continue to lead the force.

Nugent, who spent three decades in Victoria Police, stepped into the top job in temporarily on Wednesday, as a search for a permanent replacement gets underway.

He left his previous post as emergency management commissioner to take up the role after a 17-month stint away from the force.

The leadership upheaval comes in the shadow of a months-long wage dispute, during which police members rejected a pay rise offer of 18 per cent over four years.

Later, a tentative deal involving frontline officers receiving a 5 per cent a year raise for four years and other officers 4.5 per cent a year over the same period, was struck by the union.

It was short of the initially sought 24 per cent pay increase over four years.

Opposition spokesman for police David Southwick said Paterson’s departure was a symptom of the state’s ongoing battle against youth crime.

“The Allan Labor government’s crime crisis blame game continues following confirmation Premier Jacinta Allan has sacked a second Victoria Police executive within a week,” he said.

Statistics released in December showed crimes by children aged 10 to 17 had reached their highest levels in Victoria since 2009.

Teens aged 14 to 17 were responsible for the most child crime, totalling 20,753 incidents.

-AAP