ALMOST 30 criminals were arrested per day for nine days during a specialist police blitz.
In total, 262 people – including 24 juveniles – were arrested on more than 500 charges during Logan’s second deployment of Operation Whiskey Legion (OWL).
The operation consisted of police from the Highway Patrol, Crime and Intelligence Command, Rail Squad, Dog Squad, and Crime Prevention join forces with local police to target those “causing the most harm in our community”.
A key focus over the nine-day period was ensuring safety “within the home”.
Logan District Acting Chief Superintendent Mark Thompson said there were 31 domestic violence related arrests during the deployment, and 94 domestic violence documents issued.
“Domestic violence is a scourge in our community and it takes up a very significant amount of police resources,” he said.
“We make sure we prioritise that on a daily basis.
“This second deployment of the operation in the Logan District and the eighth in the state has seen a significant amount of police activity on the ground.
“Not only resulting in high-risk offenders being arrested but extensive community engagement across the areas, including with victims of crime.”
Logan was the birthplace of OWL, which was later rolled out across eight other locations.
During Logan’s first deployment, 289 people were arrested with more than 600 charges.
In that week, an average of 75 extra police were deployed in the city every day.
This time, 36 people were arrested on outstanding warrants and 220 people were wanded for knives or weapons.
“Police also conducted 3400 community engagements and listened to their concerns as well as executing over 600 business engagements,” Mr Thompson said.
“To keep our roads safe, police were out and about daily to conduct road safety education and enforcement throughout the district with an extra 1800 roadside drug and random breath tests performed.
“It is important to highlight these results are over and above the normal police duties officers perform day in and day out in the Logan community.”
The main areas of police focus included crimes like robberies and serious assaults in public areas such a shopping precincts and public transport hubs.
Mr Thompson said there would be additional OWL deployments but wasn’t sure when that would be.
“While this deployment to Logan is coming to an end, our community can expect to see high visibility policing with other localised operations continuing in our area,” he said.
