‘Lock it or lose it’: says head of police operation

“LOCK it or lose it.” That’s the message to residents of Alice Springs from the top cop running Operation Shorewood this holiday season

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“LOCK it or lose it.” That’s the message to residents of Alice Springs from Acting Superintendent Alex Brennan, the top cop running Operation Shorewood this holiday season.

Acting Superintendent Brennan describes Shorewood as an “intelligence-led and evidence-based” operation to combat the annual increase in criminal activity and anti-social behaviour Alice traditionally sees over the summer.

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It is as an umbrella operation, sitting above the more targeted programs like Strike Force Viper and Operation Lunar.

Officers from Shorewood co-ordinate wide-ranging intelligence-sharing by bringing together numerous police units and other agencies, including non-government organisations.

By doing this, Shorewood aims to create an inter-agency model for managing anti-social behaviour. For example, frontline police officers might identify that alcohol is being consumed on a restricted premises and then feed that information back to the Department of Housing, which can then deploy its staff to address the issue.

Surveillance of public space is another aspect of Shorewood’s operations.

“We’ve got CCTV cameras around the CBD, both fixed and mobile, which we can deploy to different areas, depending on the intel that we’ve gathered … to either provide a deterrent, or to assist us in identifying persons that may be involved in anti-social behaviour,” Acting Superintendent Brennan said.

But he also said police can’t be everywhere, all the time.

So he and his team at Shorewood are relying on the public to be vigilant.

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“We see a lot of unlawful entries and property offending which occur because of unlocked vehicles or residences,” Acting Superintendent Brennan said.

“And if anyone sees anything suspicious or out of the ordinary in their community then they need to let us know.”

Operation Shorewood began on November 1 and will continue through to March.