Social media footage and community concern led to the arrest of three men on Wednesday for alleged hooning behaviour, police say.
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Ballarat Uniform Division acting senior sergeant Paul Allen said hoon behaviour in the region had been consistent in the past year.
"Hoon driving is quite dangerous behaviour, it's been ongoing for the last 12 months ... the type of driving is quite reckless and its created a number of concerns for us," he said.
In footage posted to Instagram, motorbikes can be seen doing burn-outs across prominent locations in the region including, the Avenue of Honour overpass, the Town Hall on Sturt Street, near the Arch of Remembrance, Albert Street in Sebastopol, and in regional towns Clunes and Beaufort.
A 45-year-old Sebastopol man, a 40-year-old Sebastopol man and a 22-year-old Alfredton man were charged with reckless conduct endanger serious injury over the incidents.
"They obviously like to chase a bit of notoriety from [social media] - we like everyone else in the public see these things and they're out there in the public realm and we look at them, we judge their behaviour," acting senior sergeant Allen said.
"It's not just social media that leads down this, we get complaints from the public - I mean if you're behaving like that people driving past have their own concerns and they call triple zero."
In the videos crowds can be seen watching on as people on motorbikes block traffic and engage in hoon behaviour.
Acting senior sergeant Allen said the three were not associated with bikie gangs, but were motorcycle enthusiasts "that have taken their enthusiasm too far".
"From what we've seen there's number of large crowds watching and filming, there is a risk that behaviour could get out of control and its a small mistake that can get dangerous very, very quickly," he said.
Police also executed three search warrants in a raid early Wednesday morning across Sebastopol and Alfredton, seizing two Harley Davidson motorbikes.
The arrests took place as part of Operation Achilles, which has seen police focus on known hoon hotspots, and relate to incidents between April 2021 and March 2022.
Since July last year, Operation Achilles has resulted in more than 210 offenders being charged, over 11,000 charges being laid, and more than 140 vehicles impounded.
"We'll continue our policing operations to target that type of behaviour, we have days of action involving Highway Patrol, Uniform, detectives," acting senior sergeant Allen said.
"We're all 24/7, shift to shift looking at challenging that behaviour."
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