By LAURA WAKELY
THE TOP 10 repeat offenders from municipalities across the West will be targeted in a new police operation.
Chief Commissioner Ken Lay said last Tuesday Operation Bia would see problem areas flooded with police over a two-month operation tackling recidivist offenders.
The areas include Brimbank, Hobsons Bay, Maribyrnong, Melton and Wyndham as well as parts of the North, the city, Geelong and south-east.
The Operations Support Unit, Transit Safety Division, Protective Service Officers and Road Policing Operations and Investigations Division will each take part in the operation, which will include around 1000 additional police.
Mr Lay said the top 10 recidivist offenders in each police service area, including repeat offenders for assault, armed robberies and burglaries, will “feel some of the heat” of the operation, because of the high risk they posed to the community.
“We understand that there is a group of people, recidivist offenders, who are continually putting people at risk and we are watching you,” Mr Lay said.
“We will be addressing this, we will be putting resources towards these particular people, we’ll be putting them before the courts, we’ll be putting our expectation to the court that these people should be put under strict bail conditions to prevent their continuing offending.”
He said police were expecting the crime rate would drop by targeting repeat offenders.
Operation Bia will also gather intelligence on which people are most likely to become victims of crime to better educate the community.
Mr Lay said areas such as the West were chosen because of their high crime rates and they were areas of social disadvantage, unemployment and low socio-economic status,
“We look at offending at the moment and know that much of this had its genesis sometimes 10, 15 or so years ago so crime is not just a police issue, it’s a broader societal issue often driven by poverty, socio-economic levels, lack of education and the like.”
Police will review the operation in September and release the results to the public.
“We’ll then feed into a longer term strategy which is about engaging with the community, engaging with Government to understand the longer term efforts we need to make to continue to drive crime down,” Mr Lay said.
