Zero tolerance on the road for local police

THERE was a large police presence in Leongatha over the recent long weekend, as South Gippsland Uniform, Bass Coast Highway Patrol and Crime Investigation members, and the Sheriff’s Office took part in Operation Fulmine.

A two-phase operation commencing Monday morning and concluding Wednesday morning, members of the public would have witnessed or even been pulled over in one of the four high visibility roadside breath testing sites, however, what the public didn’t witness was the incredible undercover presence as the sun set.

“The Operation was established to continue disrupting the occurrence of burglaries and high-volume offending throughout South Gippsland and hold offenders to account by overt and covert patrols,” Senior Sergeant Brad Steer explained.

“It’s our fifth operation since late last year, which has seen 13 individuals arrested in relation to burglaries and thefts so far.

“When we increased our perceived presence at night, we found offenders shifted to crime during the day, which the public identified – this information led to multiple arrests.”

Placing pressure on offenders and reassuring the community, the police have also been targeting youth related offending and bail compliance.

“There were five tasks within Operation Fulmine – decrease the rate of offending, reduce victimisation, increase the rate of apprehension of offenders, increase the intelligence base and number of products relative, and improve community confidence.

“We applied a zero-tolerance stance to disrupt and arrest persons responsible for these crimes in the two-day blitz.

“So far crimes have reduced by over 200 per cent since our operations have been implemented dating back to late December. However, if it wasn’t for the support of the local community providing information, we would not be in the position we are now.”

And whilst local police are still urging the community to come forward if they witness anything suspicious day or night, criminals can rest assured they will be caught with randomised tactical 
operations ongoing both day and night across South Gippsland and Bass Coast.

“We received outstanding feedback from the Leongatha and surrounding communities during Operation Fulmine.”

Operation Fulmine statistics:

• 3000 plus preliminary breath test and public contacts

• Seven arrests for property and drug related offences

• 30 plus penalty notices issued

• One vehicle seized

• $46,700 in recovered outstanding fines