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Gosnells Police deny out-of-control gatherings increasing

Ben SmithComment News

GOSNELLS Police officer-in-charge Jodie Pearson has denied out-of-control gatherings in the area are increasing.

Despite a recent spate of wild parties which have received media attention, Sgt Pearson believes they have not become more rampant.

On Friday night, an out-of-control gathering was declared at a vacant property on Percy Street in Gosnells and a party on Vanda Place in Maddington was shut down before it could escalate to an out-of-control gathering.

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It followed a party on Eudoria Street in Gosnells the weekend before, which police shut down because it threatened to spiral out of control.

Sgt Pearson said while these parties had appeared in the news, she did not believe there had been a dramatic rise in the number of incidents.

“I don’t think there’s been an increase in amount of out-of-control gathering, but they seem to be in the news and they impact on me because they’ve been in my area,” she said.

The hosts of the parties on Vanda Place and Eudoria Street had charged guests entry, which Sgt Pearson said was illegal.

“In these situations, they’ve been charging money for people to come to party and you can’t do that because that’s using premises as a business,” she said.

“It’s local government legislation, if you’re charging people to attend your premises, you’re running a business and you can’t do that.”

Sgt Pearson said police considered a variety of things before deciding whether a party could become out of control and thanked local residents who alerted police to potentially out-of-control parties.

“We consider whether organisers have control, appropriate supervision, adequate food and soft drinks, if there’s enough toilets and all those general party organisational type of things,” she said.

“We’ve had some success with the public letting us know when they’ve started to see groups of juveniles converge, it means we’re able to asses parties before they become out-of-control.”

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