Police will be able to search people around Geelong without cause for 12 hours after declaring large parts of the city a ‘designated area’.
Local liquour licensing Sergeant Robert Yapp says officers will be searching people for weapons, with a focus on the waterfront and Geelong railway station, between 6pm tonight (Saturday) and 6am tomorrow morning (Sunday).
“We haven’t had an increase in knives, but we’re going to be searching for weapons,” he said.
Police say an increased number of people coming into the city and a desire to “improve our interactions with the community” is behind the large operation that involves bringing in additional officers from Melbourne.
“We’ve actually found that the CBD is quite well behaved on a Saturday; just the increased attendance, we just want to keep our visible police presence very high, to keep the community safe,” he said.
The mass stop-and-search operation is at least the third of its kind in the region over the last 12 months, including a similar crackdown in the city last July where 40 people were checked with no weapons being uncovered.
Police are required by legislation to advise the public in advance of stop-and-search operations.
