Knives, daggers and batons seized in shopping centre crime crackdown
More than 100 people have been arrested in the first three weeks of a trial of police and protective services officers patrolling major shopping centres.
Daggers, batons and knives have been seized and more than 100 people arrested during the first three weeks of a crackdown on violent crime and anti-social behaviour at shopping centres.
Among those arrested by police and protective services officers were a 15-year-old boy with a hunting knife stashed in his waistband, two men who took swings at each other with a stolen hammer, and two thieves who had stolen more than $800 worth of clothes.
PSOs and police have been deployed to prevent crime in shopping centres.Credit: Paul Rovere
Officers also responded to several incidents of abuse towards retail workers, including a woman who became aggressive inside a computer store and a group that got into a disagreement with staff over taking photos with Santa.
Victoria Police launched Operation Pulse earlier this month to provide a visible deterrent against anti-social and violent behaviour in public places in the lead-up to Christmas and over the summer months.
The $2.3 million operation came amid pleas for help from retailers across Victoria facing a crisis of abuse, violence, theft and knife crime that has turned the state into Australia’s retail theft capital and seen a series of high-profile violent incidents at shopping centres, including a wild brawl between machete-wielding rival youth gangs at Northland shopping centre in Preston in May that sent scores of shoppers scrambling.
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Northland was sent into lockdown again less than a month after the machete attack, when an allegedly stolen four-wheel-drive ploughed through bollards and sped through the retail centre in an attempt to evade police, narrowly missing shoppers in June.
The following month, Saurabh Anand was seriously injured and required emergency surgery to have one of his hands reattached after youths armed with a machete attacked him outside the Central Square Shopping Centre in Altona Meadows.
The state government has since for people who assault retail and hospitality workers, including prison terms of up to five years. Summary offences for lower-level assaults or for threatening or intimidating a worker carry penalties of up to six months in jail.
