Elite Victoria Police unit primed for Melbourne CBD terror attacks
AN elite Victoria Police strike squad armed with sub-machine guns will roam Melbourne’s CBD to instantly respond to any terror attacks.
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AN elite Victoria Police strike squad armed with sub-machine guns will roam Melbourne’s CBD to instantly respond to any terror attacks.
The Sunday Herald Sun can reveal that the highly-trained team — similar to the Metropolitan Police’s counter-terror squads in London — has been secretly patrolling in the city and at major events in recent months.
They were responsible for the dramatic arrest of a knife-wielding teen in combat gear outside Flinders Street Station on Grand Final day — responding within just four minutes.
The rapid response officers will begin official duties on Monday and operate daily, cruising the city centre and inner suburbs in marked and unmarked four-wheel-drives.
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Their first official jobs will include guarding crowds at this week’s Carols by Candlelight and in the CBD on New Year’s Eve.
Deputy Commissioner Andrew Crisp told the Sunday Herald Sun: “We know it’s a different operating environment for our members. Time is everything for us.
“It’s not good enough any more that we have police resources maybe sitting back at headquarters,’’ Mr Crisp said. “We need to be out on the street and we need to be able to respond quickly.”
The squad — part of the force’s Critical Incident Response Team — will also patrol major events statewide. Its mission is to respond to “high-risk, high-harm” incidents such as terrorist attacks, incidents involving armed offenders, and Bourke St style rampages.
Officers are equipped with a sub-machine gun, handgun, Taser, baton, capsicum spray, gas mask and ballistic shield.
Mr Crisp said the initiative, based on information and intelligence from forces and incidents overseas, put Victoria Police on par with the best worldwide.
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In London in June, elite cops took just eight minutes to find and shoot dead the three terrorists behind the London Bridge attack. Their widely acclaimed reaction to the incident — in which eight civilians including two Aussies died — is now considered the benchmark worldwide.
“We thought given the whole changed security environment that we would like to strengthen our Critical Incident Response Team response, particularly to the city and the inner suburbs,’’ Mr Crisp said.
“We are therefore moving to this model where we will have members kitted up and out in a number of marked and unmarked vehicles.
“Time is critical for us in terms of a response to an incident.
“We would hope that we would be able to get a specialist response to an incident in the city very quickly — within minutes.”
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The roving teams will keep a low profile but the public has been urged not to be alarmed if they see officers in full tactical gear carrying sub-machine guns.
“We don’t want to turn the city into a fortress and we don’t want a police member with a long-arm standing on every street corner,’’ Mr Crisp said.
“It’s actually finding that balance. It’s really about being able to go about your business or your pleasure activities in the city where people should have the confidence that we’ve got police resources that are there to support them.
“The national terror-threat alert level is still at ‘probable’ and we have no intelligence to indicate there is a specific risk to any upcoming events or over the holiday period.
“But we want to reassure the community about everything we are doing to keep them safe.”
Next month’s Australian Open tennis and the 2018 AFL Grand Final will fall under the responsibility of the new team.
Regular Critical Incident Response Team units will continue to respond to routine call-outs.
THEY PASSED THE FIRST TEST IN FOUR MINUTES
HIDDEN in plain sight, Melbourne’s new CBD guardians have been keeping tens of thousands of citizens safe for months now.
The Victoria Police Critical Incident Response Team’s (CIRT) new instant-response squad secretly patrolled key events this year including Moomba, Anzac Day and the Melbourne Cup.
But it was outside Flinders St station on Grand Final Day — the same spot where January’s Bourke St tragedy began — that the skilled team had its first test.
The specialist officers were there within four minutes, swiftly Tasering and arresting a teenager dressed in combat gear and a helmet, wearing a backpack and brandishing a large knife.
Insp Steve Reynolds, who leads training for the CIRT, told the Sunday Herald Sun: “I would like to say that they are prepared for any high-risk incident.”
The men and women in the CIRT are always in peak condition — they undergo a full week of training once every six weeks.
Police members wanting to join up must undergo a two-day selection process to be considered for the seven-week induction course.
Those who make the grade carry a cache of tools, but it’s their resilience and ability to think under pressure in difficult situations that often proves the most effective weapon.
“Our ultimate outcome is to resolve any situation peacefully,’’ Insp Reynolds said.
“Having said that we clearly identify that there are situations where that is not a tactic that is going to be successful.
“Should the need be there ... they are well and truly prepared and trained to be able to do that effectively.”
He said CIRT members were “really enthused” about the new rapid-response unit, and he hoped the public would be too.
“We would like the community to see the CIRT out there doing these duties to give them some confidence. We don’t want it to create a sense of fear,” he said.
“With some of the unfortunate things that have happened in Melbourne over the last 12 months I would hope it should only instil more confidence that Victoria Police is where it needs to be in terms of protecting the community.”
Police Minister Lisa Neville said: “This model of roving CIRT teams is crucial to be agile and to swiftly respond to emerging threats or developing situations. We provided the CIRT teams with additional equipment and technology to ensure they can play this increased role.”