The dream for Yagan Square to act as a Times Square of Perth seemed a long forgotten dream this week with the decision to base a police mobile command post in a public space beat cops refer to as ‘fight square’.
For three years running the state government has run Operation Heat Wave, a boost in policing patrols over the summer months for crime hot-spots, which has had a heavy focus on the entertainment district of Northbridge and the city centre.
A police bicycle patrol in Yagan Square in Perth’s CBD.Credit: Peter de Kruijff
A further $3.5 million for another iteration of the operation was announced last month and on Tuesday police revealed they would be basing its Northbridge and city operations out of a mobile command post set-up in Yagan Square from December to March.
Having the van in the square would see all the extra summer police officers starting and finishing their patrols from the site.
The plaza between Yagan Square and the Perth Busport serves as a thoroughfare connecting Northbridge to the CBD and was supposed to become the heart of the city when it opened four years ago.
Instead all the indoor outlets within the ‘market hall’ area of the square building have either left or been kicked out as only a handful of external lessees remain.
At the same time assaults have been rising in Northbridge for the past five years and high-profile attacks like the stabbing death of 28-year-old Manar Pan-Mading and the one-punch attack by a 15-year-old on soccer player Danny Hodgson, which left him fighting for his life.
Police Assistant Commissioner Gary Driebergs told 6PR that putting the command post in the middle of the square would create a deterrent effect.
“It just seems to be a spot that hasn’t been able to really provide the environment that the government wanted to create down there or the city wanted to create,” he said.
“So we’re really focused on trying to have a vibrant city and an area that people want to come and visit.”
Mr Driebergs also noted an extra $1 million for patrols by Aboriginal liaison and security service Rooforce in the CBD and Northbridge, and an additional $1.5 million for outreach services to aid people sleeping rough, would operate in tandem.
“We’re working with Department of Communities ... they’ll be providing greater coordination of the outreach services in the Northbridge in the Perth CBD area for us,” he said.
He said the department was very heavily focused on helping police deal with those who have problems outside of police enforcement.
“So by putting this extra effort in there and making people feel supported, and feel comfortable in the area, and also just working with those people who need assistance in that area,” Mr Driebergs said.
Communities Minister Simone McGurk said extra resources would also go into co-locating workers from her department with police to be able to provide after-hours help to people on the street.
“The additional money that we’ve identified will be in place for at least a year,” she said.
A mobile police van will stay in Yagan Square for most of the summer to increase visibility in the city centre.Credit: Peter de Kruijff
An upgrade of the Perth train station forecourt between the transport hub and the Myer building is also currently receiving a $2.5 million upgrade to improve lighting and pedestrian movement after works started last month.
Northbridge identity and Mustang Bar owner Mike Keiller said the new initiatives sounded promising.
“Some elements we’ve heard it before but the government and in particular, the Police Minister [Paul Papalia] has gone the extra yard in the last few months to make contact with representatives in Northbridge in the city,” he told 6PR.
“Hopefully it’s a promise of things to come.”
More to be done
Perth Lord Mayor Basil Zempilas welcomed the new initiatives and continued his calls for $4.2 million of council coffers going to the state – to cover costs of a two-year inquiry into the organisation – to be pledged to city safety initiatives.
The City of Perth wants to see the money go towards security patrols, additional CCTV cameras in crime hotspots, youth intervention and cultural outreach programs, and to implement recommendations from a security audit of crowded places.
Local Government Minister John Carey said a decision about the City’s request would be made soon.
Mr Zempilas also suggested bringing back a curfew for people under the age of 16 to the area and said he was concerned about congregations of unsupervised youths frequenting the Yagan Square area.
He said he was hopeful the new Edith Cowan University campus in the square – slated to open in 2025 – would breathe new life into precinct.
“We can still see good days from Yagan Square once 10,000 people are in that precinct on a daily basis,” Mr Zempilas said.
Former Premier Geoff Gallop brought in a curfew in 2003 but crime statistics went up and the scheme eventually died out.
Expressions of interest for new developments within the Yagan Square Market Hall closed earlier this year, with analysis of proposals currently under way.
DevelopmentWA planning and transition executive general manager Matt Ryan said eight responses to the EOI had been received and there was now a short-list.
“Works to deconstrain the internal Market Hall space and prepare it for an alternate use are underway, and expected to be completed in early 2022,” he said.
Calls for greater increase to police numbers
Opposition police spokesman Peter Collier characterised the new initiatives from the state government as a bandaid solution to a problem which had been let out of control.
“The area is ground zero for violence in the CBD-Northbridge area, with many people avoiding it altogether,” he said.
“A few more police officers is simply not enough of a solution to tackle the problems in the area, it hasn’t worked in the past, nor will it now.
“Police presence needs to be exponentially increased in order to send a powerful message and show of force to those engaging in assaults and anti-social behaviour.”
But Mr Papalia said the state was already on its way to the largest number of police in its history.
“A 15 per cent increase in police numbers, 950 above attrition over the next couple of years,” he said.
“That will mean that there are more police available, more police on the ground at all times.”
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