By TOM HAYES
CRIMES, including a brawl, occurred in the Latrobe Valley in the lead-up to Operation Summit, led by the Public Order Response Team (PORT), that was rolled out in early July over a four-day period. Sixteen arrests were made during the major operation.
In the weeks before the summit, the criminal activity in the Latrobe Valley included an affray on a bus in Traralgon, as well as an affray at Mid Valley Shopping Centre.
The Mid Valley incident included a 15-person brawl inside the centre, where police seized multiple weapons. During the altercation, one man was arrested, and another person was taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
The PORT was supported by local police, as well as specialist units including the Transit Safety Division, Road Policing Command, Police Air Wing, Dog Squad and Mounted Branch, National Heavy Vehicle Regulator, and the Sherriff’s Office.
“This (Operation) Summit has been going on in collaboration with mainly Eastern Division, just to assist with road policing, warrants, that kind of stuff,” PORT Acting Senior Sergeant, Brett Hall, said.
“It was more just a good time to collaborate with Eastern Division 5.”
During the first two days of Operation Summit, police recorded six arrests not limited to possession of weapons, drug-related offending, driving-related offending, all while issuing 26 penalty notices.
One of these included a probationary licence holder exceeding the legal blood alcohol content limit of 0.05.
Findings from the police only increased in the final two days of Operation Summit.
After four days, Operation Summit had tallied a total of 16 arrests, issuing around 80 penalty notices.
From the 16 arrests, police revealed 12 which were in relation to warrants for failing to appear in court.
In regard to the penalty notices, the majority related to traffic offences including speeding, driving unregistered vehicles, using a mobile phone while driving, and licencing offences.
Three drivers had their cars impounded for various road related offending, and three defect notices were issued to drivers after safety risks were identified on their vehicles.
Those helping with Operation Summit were also able to assist local detectives in executing five search warrants.
PORT officers travel all over Victoria providing a highly visible police response to assist with public safety incidents, emergencies, and organisational issues, which can include events such as protests, demonstrations, riots, and sporting events.
Targeting all-round crime, the operation enhances police presence in the area, allowing police to detect and deter crime, simultaneously heightening public safety.
“It’s just providing a strong, visible police presence for the community,” Eastern Region’s Acting Senior Sergeant, Brian Dalrymple said.
“So we’ve had a number of high profile events across the PSA (Police Service Area) as of late.
“It’s just some additional resources to provide community reassurance around deterring that kind of behaviour.”
While attempting to cover as many bases as possible, Operation Summit was not in place to target one particular area of crime.
“We are not more or less targeting one thing, it’s more just general policing. I guess to see (police) out there it helps with community perception,” Mr Hall said.
Mr Hall and Mr Dalrymple agreed that something similar to Operation Summit was something that should run again in the future.
“Hopefully it’ll be an ongoing (collaboration), every few months, couple of times a year,” Mr Dalrymple said.
“For us it’s about building those strong connections,” Mr Hall added.
