Changes to alcohol sales, mounted police and a drug detection dog will be used in a summer operation in the Armadale CBD from December in an effort to reduce crime and improve public perceptions of the area.
Operation boniform would see the extra police units in the CBD as well as cooperation between Armadale police, the City of Armadale and businesses.
Armadale senior sergeant Mark Tobiassen said a focus of the operation would be on Thursday nights.
“The message from us is a warning to anyone who has an intent of coming to the CBD to act anti-socially that we’re going to target them with all the available legislation we have at our disposal in an effort to help people feel safe and secure,” he said.
As well as increased visibility Armadale police and businesses selling alcohol in the CBD had made an agreement to restrict sales to once a day per person to help reduce street drinking.
“We’ve been working really closely with those who are trading alcohol in the CBD and we’ve had some issues with people who are drinking in the mall and together we’ve come up with the plan of only serving people once in a day,” he said.
Snr Sgt Tobiassen said while the operation would combat the usual summer crime spikes it was also about reassuring people they would be safe in the CBD.
“Armadale has a reputation…that reputation is that Armadale is not a safe place to be and I don’t believe that is even close to being true based on my experience here,” he said.
“So what we wanted to do over the summer months is to provide some assurance to the community that Armadale is a safe place and we welcome people into the CBD to use the facilities and enjoy themselves.”
