{"id":379165,"date":"2025-12-29T23:09:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-29T23:09:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/379165\/"},"modified":"2025-12-29T23:09:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-29T23:09:11","slug":"victoria-police-make-more-than-100-arrests-seize-30-weapons-during-first-weeks-of-shopping-centre-operations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/379165\/","title":{"rendered":"Victoria Police make more than 100 arrests, seize 30 weapons during first weeks of shopping centre operations"},"content":{"rendered":"

Police say more than 100 people have been arrested in the first three weeks of an operation targeting Melbourne’s shopping centres.<\/p>\n

The arrests include a 15-year-old carrying a hunting knife, two men fighting with a stolen hammer and two people who stole $800 worth of clothes.<\/p>\n

Victoria Police began Operation Pulse on December 8, teaming up with protective services officers (PSOs) to patrol some of Melbourne’s busiest shopping centres.<\/p>\n

The 90-day operation focuses on Northland, Highpoint, Eastland and Fountain Gate shopping centres as people hit the shops for Christmas and Boxing Day shopping.<\/p>\n

Victoria Police said there had been 109 arrests and 30 weapons seized through regular searches and weapons declarations.<\/p>\n

\"Damaged<\/p>\n

The patrols are taking place at four shopping centres, including Northland, where a vehicle ploughed into an entrance earlier this year. (ABC News: Leanne Wong)<\/p>\n

On a single day, police seized a baton, a set of knuckle dusters, a dagger and three knives.<\/p>\n

A total of 217 offences were recorded during the operation so far, with 75 of those related to theft and stealing from shops.<\/p>\n

There have also been multiple incidents of abuse of shop workers, including a woman being evicted from a computer store after she became extremely aggressive and refused to leave.<\/p>\n

More than 100 people have been directed to move on from centres and police have issued 41 cautions and 38 penalty notices.<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

Earlier this year there was a machete brawl involving youth gangs at Northland shopping centre in Preston. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

Victoria Police Deputy Commissioner, Regional Operations, Bob Hill, said the strong police presence will continue.<\/p>\n

“With the Boxing Day sales and school holidays underway, Victoria Police is here to keep shoppers and retail workers safe,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Already we’ve made more than 100 arrests, seized dozens of weapons and moved on a significant number of people intent on causing trouble.<\/p>\n

“As a police force, we simply will not stand for those who bring violence, aggression and weapons to places we should all feel safe.”<\/p>\n

Victoria Police said police and PSO shifts as part of Operation Pulse are voluntary and are in addition to existing patrols with no impact on resourcing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Police say more than 100 people have been arrested in the first three weeks of an operation targeting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":379166,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[46894,204193,204194,43,204192,204190,204189,647,44,61397,204191,1158,185814,111190,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-379165","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-arrests","9":"tag-eastland","10":"tag-fountain-gate","11":"tag-headlines","12":"tag-highpoint","13":"tag-knives","14":"tag-machetes","15":"tag-melbourne","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-northland","18":"tag-operation-pulse","19":"tag-police","20":"tag-shopping-centre","21":"tag-shopping-centres","22":"tag-top-news","23":"tag-top-stories","24":"tag-topnews","25":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=379165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379165\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/379166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=379165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=379165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=379165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}