Police blitz reduces Karratha holiday crime

Karratha police have hailed their implementation of school holiday plan Operation Chancery a success in the wake of a “significant” reduction in reports over that period.

The Karratha police sub-district experienced a 33-50 per cent drop in its main crime categories in January and February compared to the same time period last year.

Assaults (down 50 per cent), burglaries (down 44 per cent) and stealing offences (down 36 per cent) were the categories in which offending dropped the most, while reports of domestic violence and trespass (both down 33 per cent) also declined.

Sergeant Craig Carter, who oversaw the operation, said the results were “excellent”, especially given crime usually rose over the holidays.

“The same trend started but we were just able to react to it so quickly because of the things we had put in place,” he said.

“It’s probably one of the best results I’ve seen.”

“To go from full speed to almost a crawl (in crime statistics), over a 2-3 month period, is fantastic.”

Sgt Carter put the results down to heavy promotion and community engagement in the lead-up to the operation, deploying plain-clothes police officers in areas of suspicious activity and working to divert young people from crime.

He thanked the community for assisting police by providing information on suspicious behaviour in the area.

Sgt Carter said he hoped the sub-district’s approach could be used as a “blueprint” for similar future operations.

Operation Chancery ran across the Pilbara police district from December 21 to February 4, with sub-district stations tailoring the operation for their areas.