Cade Lucas
Police arrested six people and seized eight weapons during an omni operation at the Werribee Railway Station precinct last week.
The July 27 operation, which also involved the Public Order Response Team, local police and Metro authorised officers, was aimed at detecting illegal weapons.
The arrests were made for a range of offences including carrying a concealed weapon, stating a false name, assault and being wanted on warrant.
Five of those arrested were charged on summons and will appear before court at a later date. The sixth was issued with a caution.
Four penalty notices were issued for possessing a controlled weapon (2), stating a false name and address, and contravention of a direction to move on.
Police spoke with more than 1000 people during the omni operation where police are afforded additional powers under the Control of Weapons Act to detect weapon offences within a designated search area.
Transit West Local Area Commander, Inspector Fiona Curnow, said such operations were necessary to protect the community from dangerous weapons.
“In an ideal world, we would never have to run these operations, but the reality is a small number of people choose to carry weapons,” Inspector Curnow said.
“Our message is clear: we simply won’t tolerate it.
This highly visible presence is about boosting safety in and around Werribee’s public transport hubs,” she said.
A previous omni operation at Sunshine Railway Station on 20 July resulted in two arrests and five weapons being seized.
Inspector Curnow said more will follow.
“We’ll continue to run targeted operations like this one in a bid to detect and deter offending right across the network.”
