By Alesha Capone
A RECENT crackdown on crime on the shopping strip in Deer Park’s Town Centre has had mixed reactions, with some traders saying they feel safer and others wanting more action.
Last week, Star reported there has been a reduction in the anti-social behaviour, bashings, armed robberies, drug dealing and gang activities in the Ballarat Rd area since August.
Over the past few months, police, the Brimbank City Council and the Deer Park Traders and Residents Association have been meeting to plan their response to the problem. Last Wednesday, Star visited retailers along the shopping strip, where groups of young people calling themselves “the 3023 gang” used to spend time and cause trouble.
Newsagency owner Bruce Niblett, who was bashed, kicked and hit with a glass bottle during two assaults, said, “things have settled down”. “There’s more of a police presence and lots more patrols, that’s good so everyone can see,” he said.
Mr Niblett said the men who delivered his newspapers still kept watch for each other while they loaded their trucks early in the morning.
“We see them wandering around, but not in big groups. I’ve seen a huge improvement.”
Owner of the nearby kebab shop, Angie Irtat, went through a nightmare during August, when her husband was stabbed in the stomach with a syringe during a violent attack on the shopping strip.
Ms Irtat said she would like more lighting and police patrolling the street, as she knows people who have got syringes caught in their shoes and she still sees drug dealing occur.
