By Candice Boyle
MORE than 60 people were arrested in a covert five-day police operation in Footscray.
Operation Frenzy was part of the Footscray Police’s commitment to cleaning up the central business district and surrounding streets.
The operation was run by Detective Senior Constables Matthew Kershaw and Brendan O’Mahoney and Sergeant John O’Halloran earlier this month.
Officers from surrounding police stations were drafted in to help in the crackdown.
Early indications are that it has had a profound effect with a 50 per cent reduction in burglaries in the week after the operation.
The operation was declared a success, although with results showing an average of 12.2 arrests a day, Det Sen Const Kershaw said there was a definite need for a continued police presence on the streets.
“The results exceeded expectations. It shows that when you put resources into something just what you can get out.
“But we can’t run an operation like this every week, unfortunately you can only put out the resources you have,” he said.
The operation targeted street offences including serious assaults, burglary and theft, theft of motor vehicle, theft from motor vehicle and various drug-related offences including trafficking, possession and cultivation.
Police executed four drug-related warrants and issued 31 penalty notices for traffic offences and drinking in public during the operation.
Police also recommended that nine people arrested on drug charges be banned from entering the Maribyrnong City Council limits.
Det Sen Const Kershaw said the recommendations were made under the Persons for Project Reduction agreement that was introduced by police last year.
The agreement allows police to request people from outside the council limits who are charged with drug offences be banned from returning into the council area as part of the bail conditions imposed by a magistrate.
“It is a way of curbing the drug problem and trying to do something about it and help keep traders from losing business,” he said.
Det Sen Const Kershaw said police would be attempting to run similar operations in the future in an effort to keep the crime figures recorded down.
