Hundreds of people have been arrested in just 10 days after police officers saturated crime hotspots across Logan and Ipswich.
A major blitz police dubbed “Operation Whiskey Legion” has ended with 429 people charged on almost 900 offences.
The 10-day operation brought in specialist police – including the highway, rail, water and dog squads – to join local officers at shopping centres and transport hubs.
Of the 429 people charged, more than 70 were juveniles.
The charges range from armed robbery and burglary to unlawful use of a motor vehicle and domestic violence offences.
In addition to the arrests, police also conducted 1347 street checks, 993 business walk-throughs and 2414 roadside breath tests.
Acting Assistant Commissioner of the south east region Mel Adams said police received positive feedback from local residents.
“Logan community members have noticed the extra officers and Police Liaison Officers (PLOs) in our busy areas such as shopping centres on Thursday nights, train stations and at our crime prevention pop-ups and have provided really positive feedback,” Ms Adams said.
“We had a significant number of specialist police deployed to Logan to support our ongoing local efforts in targeting high-risk offenders and we have seen exceptional results.
“Even though this deployment to Logan has concluded, the community can expect to see high visibility policing with Operation Whiskey Unison and other localised operations continuing in our area.”
Acting Commissioner Steve Gollschewski said Operation Whiskey Legion was established to drive down crime in hotspot locations across Queensland.
“The first deployment of the operation has seen a significant amount of police activity on the ground in Logan and Ipswich – not only resulting in high-risk offenders being arrested but extensive community engagement across the areas,” Gollschewski said.
“There has also been a strong focus on keeping victims of crime updated on the progress of investigations – which we know is an important part of the process.”
Operation Whiskey Legion will continue with rolling deployments across Queensland.
Clean up the commonwealth ATM on Church St Goodna next, particularly at night. Junkie meth-heads have set up camps beside the ATMs, and some of them harrass the customers with erratic and intimidating behaviours, such as begging, yelling abuse, running up to and confronting customers who just withdrew cash, and chasing after and throwing objects at departing cars.