Police Wrap: Geraldton OIC Sen. Sgt Chris Martin on challenges and top crime busts for 2022

I would like to thank the community for all their assistance in tackling crime across Geraldton throughout this year.

This community effort ultimately makes Geraldton a lot safer and has assisted the local police in solving a lot of crime.

Clearly from the social media feedback the community is concerned about crime, and they can be confident that police are doing everything possible to address these concerns.

Police are only as strong as the community around them and going by this year’s collective efforts, we are a strong and resilient regional community, jointly committed to tackling crime.

This community partnership has been instrumental in addressing crime and putting offenders behind bars.

I am immensely proud of the efforts of the entire police station, many officers went above and beyond in 2022 to keep the community safe.

Some standout achievements are the lifesaving actions of six officers in May and June, when they responded to elderly members of the public awaiting the attendance of an ambulance.

The officers involved provided lifesaving medical assistance and CPR which led to both people’s survival.

Other noticeable achievements was the response to Operation Hack, where an officer at the station single-handedly identified an offender using public phone boxes to sexually harass female members of the community dating back the last 13 years.

The biggest challenge of 2022 is and continues to be the rise in youth offending. The last thing police want to be doing is apprehending juveniles for any offences — but particularly serious crime.

We continue to work very closely with our community partners to address these concerns and hope these efforts — with the assistance of parents and guardians — can curb this pattern of offending.

I will be looking to adapt our policing model to meet the ever-changing demands of the community — whether that is operationally with rostering or the creation of a new task force to address new crime trends — we are constantly looking for innovation to solve crime faster and keep the streets safe.