He and operation manager Senior-Sergeant Glenn Spencer have brought a combined 50-plus years’ policing experience to bear in planning Carambola.
In the tradition of Operation Apollo parts 1 and 2, each lasting a fortnight in October and January, Carambola is aiming extra resources at the Armadale region, this time for three months.
Sgt Spencer said the operation, the first on this scale for WA Police, expanded Apollo’s techniques into an operation built from metropolitan-wide resources.
Get in front of tomorrow's news for FREE
Journalism for the curious Australian across politics, business, culture and opinion.
READ NOWHe said the wide casting of the recruitment net ensured the rest of Perth did not suffer, while Carambola had the grunt to impact criminal networks.
While Armadale police station’s daily operations will continue unchanged, extra muscle in the form of ‘smart cars’, bike, mounted and traffic patrols and investigative teams will target core and fringe offenders.
Insp. Dallimore and Sgt Spencer will deploy strike teams into visible patrolling, pursuing known offenders and executing search warrants.
They will focus on anti-social behaviour on and off-road, on drugs, and on volume crimes such as car theft and burglary.
In return, police want the public to make a special effort to share intelligence that will prove crucial to planning.
‘People can report anecdotal tthings, things they might not ordinarily report. Now is the time,’ Sgt Spencer said.
Insp. Dallimore said Apollo, which had impressive results in terms of charges lain, had shown the time it took for increased police presence to affect offending groups.
‘Once that’s in place, you have either apprehension, or displacement of, the offenders, whose activities become disrupted by the volume of the police,’ he said. ‘This sustained effort will increase our opportunity to get that.’
Sgt Spencer added that it would also create opportunities to divert people stuck in a cycle of repeated offending towards support services.