A major police operation will be conducted in Ballarat today, which will see a heavy presence in the Ballarat CBD.
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The planned operation will see police from the Public Order Response Team, among others, swarm the streets in a highly-visible street blitz.
Sergeant Gerard Collihole from Melbourne's Public Order Response Team said people can expect a strong police presence within the Ballarat CBD.
"The area has been declared a designated area for the Control of Weapons Act so members will be approaching people at random within that area explaining to them that there is search provisions that apply until 10pm tonight," he said.
"It's not just about detecting people with weapons, it's about targeting everything that goes on within the declared area as a whole, so other things that may arise during the shifts like shop steals or public disorder incidents, road policing matters and members can attend to all that as well ... it's a holistic thing."
As part of the operation, police will have the powers to stop any person in a public place and search for weapons, without needing a search warrant.
The one-day blitz will run until 10pm on Friday.
The map below shows where the police will have the authority to search anybody.
The blitz will focus around the CBD, with the Ballarat train station and Bridge Mall area expected to be among the focal points.
Under the Controlled Weapons Act 1990, members of the police force are authorised to exercise the following powers:
- (a) in a public place in the designated area, without warrant, stop and search for weapons:
- (i) any person;
- (ii) anything in the possession or control of the person;
- (iii) any vehicle with a person in or on the vehicle; and
- (iv) anything in or on such vehicle.
- (b) detain a person or vehicle for so long as is reasonably necessary to conduct a search;
- (c) seize and detain any item the member reasonably suspects is a weapon; and
- (d) request a person who is the subject of a full search to disclose his or her identity, and (e) direct a person to leave the designated area if the police officer reasonably believes the person is wearing the face covering primarily to:
- (i) conceal their identity; or
- (ii) to protect them from the effects of a crowd control substance; and the person refuses to remove the face covering when requested to do so;
- (f) direct the person to leave the designated area if the police officer reasonably believes the person intends to engage in conduct that would constitute an affray or violent disorder.
Acting Senior Sergeant Paul Allen said police use data, including from community interactions, to determine the need for the operation.
"We get a number of community interactions with people, Neighbourhood Policing says that we interact more in the community, we get discussions with local businesses, we get all this feedback and it comes into data," he said.
"This is what its telling us, that people just want more police in this area - so we provide it with the assistance of the public order response.
"Within the first hour they've seized a knife off a person within Ballarat, so that shows straight up very quickly what our problems are - and we're on it immediately."
A missing person was also located through the first hour of the operation.
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