Mounties program catches on

– Melissa Grant
A CANADIAN-inspired police program that focuses on honing officers’ ability to detect drugs, weapons, stolen goods and abducted persons will be piloted across Melbourne’s south-eastern suburbs.
Operation Catch will be piloted in Victoria Police’s region 5, which includes the areas of Dandenong, Berwick, Narre Warren, Cranbourne and Pakenham.
Police from across Australia and New Zealand this week gathered at the Cardinia Cultural Centre in Pakenham for a four-day program to learn from their Canadian counterparts how to better target trafficking of contraband, or illegal goods, on roadways.
Canadian police have seized $4 billion of contraband since introducing the program – Operation Pipeline – in 1994. It has also helped them solve burglaries and homicide cases.
Inspector Michael Sayer, of Victoria Police Region 5, was hopeful the training would help his officers detect drugs, cash, weaponry and other illegal items.
“They should see things they may not normally pick up on,” he said. “We have good observation skills but they need to be honed in.”
National traffic officer Stan McNeil, of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, said the program had seen an average of $250 million in contraband seized in his home country each year in the past five years.
He said drugs were the most common item which Canadian police detected.
Region 5 Division 2 Superintendent Harry Hayes said the Australian version of the program, Operation Catch, gave police a skill set which helped them to be more alert in conversations with motorists and driver behaviour.
“We won’t be pulling people over en-masse – this will be an intelligent form of policing that will require members to be astute and on-the-ball,” he said.
“We know most people transporting contraband drive or are driven, and must somehow get from the city to the country and vice versa, so it makes sense to enhance police awareness of signs of suspicious behaviour.”
If successful, the operation will be rolled out across the state.