NIGHT WATCH
BULLETIN RIDES WITH POLICE AFTER DARK
SCANNERS buzzed and the energy was high as the Townsville Bulletin joined a police patrol through the streets of the city after dark.
Unusually, it was a quiet night on the streets, probably due to the cold snap. This reality was in stark contrast to a crime wave that gripped the city earlier this year, with more than 600 property offences recorded in February.
AS night descended across Townsville, crews of police geared up to hit the streets for a strategic operation to target whatever came their way.
The Townsville Bulletin was given exclusive access to the latest branch of Operation Lockdown, where resources saturate an area for several hours in hopes of preventive action or arrests.
Officers, including fresh recruits, had already rushed off to their designated areas by 10.30pm on Wednesday as the cold settled in across Stuart.
Despite their dedication, the calls were limited with Stuart Division officer-incharge Senior Sergeant Gavin Oates blaming the overnight cold snap for keeping the offenders at bay.
This reality was in stark contrast to a crime wave that gripped the city earlier this year, with more than 600 property offences recorded in February.
Since COVID-19, the decline of property crime has been hard to ignore with rates dwindling to a fraction of what it once was.
The operation consisted of 30 officers spread across the Stuart Division in 15 police vehicles.
Communications were relayed back to a police hub, where Sen-sgt Oates was running the show, shadowed by Western Patrol Group Inspector Roger Whyte.
Similar operations have nabbed a significant number of offenders at Heatley and Kirwan with plans to roll out more operations in future.
The hub was hard to miss, parked strategically beside a busy road near the Townsville Cricket Ground.
Scanners buzzed and the team worked away on their computers as murmurs of messages filtered through.
“Each crew is given a designated area and we will be tasked out if assistance is needed,” Sen-sgt Oates said.
One of the district’s four dog squads was nearby and greeted a motorist with a menacing bark as its cage rattled and shook the police wagon.
Luckily, it wasn’t needed. The first call to service meant a trip to the other side of town, where the scanner buzzed that a teenager was armed with a knife outside her home.
The girl, 17, was lying on the ground in a foetal position when the fourth and final emergency crew arrived.
Paramedics and police lifted her off the ground and on to a stretcher.
She had bandages over her arms and this wasn’t the first time police had been called to her Kelso home.
“She’s cut herself,” Insp Whyte said.
During COVID-19, depression and anxiety have increased as a result of isolation with health experts growing increasingly concerned about mental health in young people.
The scanner stayed quiet as the police car drove around different areas of the city, never stopping or being called to another job.
The streets were eerily quiet with minimal cars on highways and only a handful of pedestrians walking the main drag.
Insp Whyte said property crime fluctuated when offenders were released from detention, during different weather patterns and just by sheer coincidence.
“It’s hit and miss,” he said of the nightly crime.
PROPERTY CRIME FLUCTUATES WHEN OFFENDERS ARE RELEASED FROM DETENTION, DURING DIFFERENT WEATHER PATTERNS AND JUST BY SHEER COINCIDENCE. SEN-SGT GAVIN OATES