A COMBINED public order and public safety operation deploying experienced police from Frankston and constables-in-training from the Police Academy hit central Frankston streets on Thursday last week. Twenty-two fully sworn constables and five sergeants from the academy were supervised and mentored by 15 experienced Frankston police officers, including a senior sergeant and two sergeants. The operation targeted public order and public safety offences involving drugs, weapons and alcohol. “This operation was an excellent opportunity to assist in the development of new members of the force and to have extra resources to display a higher than usual police presence in the…
Author: Stephen Taylor
ROAD safety camera commissioner John Voyage is puzzled at the lack of “objective evidence” presented to him by motorists blaming their speeding fines on faulty Peninsula Link cameras. Mr Voyage on Monday wrapped up the evidence-collecting part of an investigation which he wants to finalise in six-to-eight weeks. His report will then go to Police Minister Lisa Neville. Controversy has raged over the costly speed readings for months, with social media besieged by complaints that the fixed cameras were just inaccurate revenue raisers. Those at Eramosa, Cranbourne and Loders roads came in for special criticism. Angry drivers formed the Peninsula…
A PENINSULA Link motorist booked for speeding has used his car’s dash cam and satellite pictures to measure the distance between two points to calculate his actual speed – more than 10kph below that stated on his fine. The calculation will add fuel to the fire of discontent over the dozens of contentious fines meted out to freeway drivers, many of who have joined the Peninsula Link 108 group which is planning a class action. Allan Tadich, of Kilsyth, said he received an infringement notice for doing 112kph as he passed the Loders Rd static camera on 22 December. “This…
BLACK smoke belching from oil-company Esso’s Long Island smoke stacks was part of “scheduled maintenance works on the main process units”, a company spokesman said last week. Communications advisor Travis Parnaby said the works – to run 28 January to 22 February – “had [been] carefully planned to minimise impacts on our local community and the environment”. “However, there will be a necessary increase in flaring throughout the course of these important works.” The smoke was noticeable on a day of total fire ban. Readers contacted The Times to complain that the unwelcome airborne haze – part of the flaring…
BYSTANDERS scattered during what police call a “hot arrest” in front of a busy Frankston serviced apartment complex at about 3pm last Sunday (5 February). Detectives tackled a man, 28, to the ground as he supposedly kept watch beside pillars in the forecourt of the multi-level Nepean Highway building and handcuffed him. Racing upstairs they raided an apartment and arrested the man’s two alleged accomplices – and man and a woman, both aged 34. The couple were allegedly in possession of 118 stolen drivers’ licences, credit cards, health care and other identity cards, as well as an imitation Beretta handgun.…