Speaker 1: It's just before eight am on a brisk morning in
Speaker 1: Sydney and Redfern, and I'm outside Redfern Police station feeling
Speaker 1: a bit anxious because.
Speaker 2: Today I'm going to be riding alongside.
Speaker 1: Police as they arrest high risk domestic violence offenders as
Speaker 1: part of Operation Amarok. Tactical and high impact teams conduct
Speaker 1: early morning raids to get the worst of the worst
Speaker 1: offenders who have breached advos or bailed compliance checks, or
Speaker 1: have evaded arrest. Until now, I don't really know what
Speaker 1: to expect today. I've heard stories of police interrupting dB
Speaker 1: in progress or having to chase perpetrators onto public buses.
Speaker 1: What I do know is this is the frontline of
Speaker 1: domestic violence policing. This is the force attempting to put
Speaker 1: a dent in the scourge that is dB in this country,
Speaker 1: but isn't making a difference. I'm Jebba Bath and this
Speaker 1: is a special episode of True Crime Conversations when you
Speaker 1: Southwales police invited us on an exclusive ride along to
Speaker 1: witness arrests as part of Operation Amarok, a statewide blitz
Speaker 1: cracking down on alleged high risk domestic violence offenders. I
Speaker 1: had an image in my head of what to expect,
Speaker 1: it was completely turned on its head. This blitz was
Speaker 1: to be the fourteenth iteration of the operation, and on
Speaker 1: the TV news, I'd seen footage of police at prior
Speaker 1: raids in helmets, carrying battering rams, marching single file towards
Speaker 1: people's doors. What I discovered riding alongside officers in the
Speaker 1: Central Metro Region DV Offender Team, however, was that most
Speaker 1: of the arrests they carried.
Speaker 2: Out looked a lot less dramatic.
Speaker 1: In total, I saw four people arrested, two men and
Speaker 1: two women. Multiple officers were there to carry out each one,
Speaker 1: but they were all in plain clothes. I was told
Speaker 1: it's easier to sneak up on people that way. They
Speaker 1: also find victims to see them as more approachable, But
Speaker 1: it was strange being surrounded by cops in gans and
Speaker 1: a beanie. Given the nature of the operation, I'll admit
Speaker 1: I was expecting most arrests to be of alleged male
Speaker 1: perpetrators for crimes of intimate violence against female partners. We
Speaker 1: are losing a woman a week to a former or
Speaker 1: current partner, after all, But I only saw one arrest
Speaker 1: of that alleged nature, and as the two officers I
Speaker 1: was shadowing, explained many of the arrests they do are
Speaker 1: family members allegedly hurting other extended family members. I got
Speaker 1: up with Sergeant Price at the end of our five
Speaker 1: hour ride along to debrief.
Speaker 2: So tell me about today. It's Operation Amarok. What did
Speaker 2: we do?
Speaker 3: First?
Speaker 2: Up, we were in Surrey Hill's Red Fern. What was
Speaker 2: the plan when we got there?
Speaker 4: This morning?
Speaker 3: We went to Surrey Hills to arrest the female with
Speaker 3: an outstanding DV warrant. We knocked for a while when
Speaker 3: the occupants initially refused to let us in. After a
Speaker 3: while they did let us in. The female we were
Speaker 3: looking for was an inside. However, there was two people
Speaker 3: inside that address who had AVO conditions not to be.
Speaker 4: At the address.
Speaker 3: Those two people were arrested and taken to Surrey Hill's
Speaker 3: police station. We're still making inquiries to locate the female that.
Speaker 4: We're looking for.
Speaker 2: Can you tell me anything about the relationship of these people.
Speaker 3: One was the son of the female and the other
Speaker 3: person was the female's.
Speaker 2: Mother, So we arrested a grandma and a grandson essentially.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, do you find during these operations? You're doing a
Speaker 1: lot of these family kind of arrests or checks.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's very common that multiple people in the one
Speaker 3: house may have AVOs with each other. They're not complying
Speaker 3: with those avios, and it's quite common when we go
Speaker 3: into a house there may be multiple people in breach
Speaker 3: of those orders.
Speaker 1: Would you say that you're doing more family kind of
Speaker 1: style arrests in these DV operations than like partner violence.
Speaker 4: Partner violence ones are definitely there.
Speaker 3: It just depends on the day when we go there, guess,
Speaker 3: But it is common that there is the family type
Speaker 3: domestic violence AVOs.
Speaker 2: From there. From that arrest, we had a few, I
Speaker 2: guess false starts. You were trying to find people what
Speaker 2: was happening.
Speaker 4: So just after that one, we went to an address
Speaker 4: in Redfern.
Speaker 3: We confirmed on CCTV footage that a male he had
Speaker 3: two outstanding warrants. He was at the victim's house in
Speaker 3: breach of the enforceable avo as well. The footage showed
Speaker 3: him leaving at six point forty five. I think we
Speaker 3: got there about eight am, so we just missed him.
Speaker 3: We made inquiries with the security of that building confirmed
Speaker 3: that he wasn't at the location. So we'll continue to
Speaker 3: follow that up and I hope he goes back there
Speaker 3: will he'll be arrested. He's preaching the AVO by being
Speaker 3: in that building as well, and.
Speaker 2: So that would have been for domestic violence charge.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's relating to domestic violence. The victim is that
Speaker 3: lady who lives at the address he was this morning.
Speaker 2: Is that happening a lot where they just go back.
Speaker 4: To the very common?
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's very common, very common We picked them up
Speaker 3: when they're wanted or preaching the AVO conditions by being
Speaker 3: at the victim's address.
Speaker 2: Are you going back to the same homes a lot?
Speaker 4: Oh, yeah, it's very common that we do that, Yes, definitely.
Speaker 1: A little bit further on in the morning, there was
Speaker 1: a man that had been convicted of manslaughter.
Speaker 2: What will we checking in on him for?
Speaker 4: Yeah, he was I think it was some years ago.
Speaker 4: He's charged with murder.
Speaker 3: He's convicted of manslaughter, spent time in jail, he's been
Speaker 3: released in the last few years and he's been charged
Speaker 3: with domestic violence offenses for his new partners. We did
Speaker 3: a AVO or attempted to do an AVO compliance check
Speaker 3: at his address in Randwick.
Speaker 4: When we made those inquiries. He's actually in Cusvidio at
Speaker 4: the moment.
Speaker 1: When you're doing these operations, is this typical that you're
Speaker 1: spending a lot of time kind of driving around. There's
Speaker 1: nothing there, you drive to another place there.
Speaker 4: Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 3: We try to get to as many places as we can,
Speaker 3: do as many checks, try to arrest as many people
Speaker 3: as we can.
Speaker 4: So yeah, it's very fast moving.
Speaker 3: Sometimes information comes in throughout the day that somebody may
Speaker 3: be at a particular location, so we respond.
Speaker 4: Quickly to that.
Speaker 2: I'll admit I was expecting you to be in police uniform.
Speaker 4: Yeah. No, we don't wear uniforming our team.
Speaker 3: It's I think a lot easier for us to catch
Speaker 3: people who are wanted if we're not in uniform. And
Speaker 3: I think a lot of victims prefer to speak to
Speaker 3: us outside of uniform as well. They feel a bit
Speaker 3: more comfortable.
Speaker 1: Tell me about the two other arrests we've done today.
Speaker 1: There was a gentleman over in South Coulji.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he had a warrant his issued two days ago.
Speaker 3: That was for a domestic violence offense preach avo offense.
Speaker 3: He was arrested in South Cooji. He's gone back to
Speaker 3: Mariuba Police station.
Speaker 4: And one here in Maroubra. It's a female.
Speaker 3: She had an outstanding warrant for domestic violence offense as well.
Speaker 3: He's been arrested and going back to the police station
Speaker 3: as well.
Speaker 1: Most of these people will they be out of custody
Speaker 1: by the weekend.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's hard to tell. Yeah, possibly some of these warrants.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's likely they will and some will be they
Speaker 3: were refused as well.
Speaker 1: Perfect, and from here, what's the plan. It's about lunchtime.
Speaker 1: We've done four ish arrests.
Speaker 2: What's your the rest of your day?
Speaker 4: Look like We'll keep going.
Speaker 3: Hopefully the guy we were looking for in Bradfern comes back,
Speaker 3: so we'll put ourselves in a position to arrest him
Speaker 3: if he comes back. Yeah, we'll just probably have lunch
Speaker 3: and then reassess and see where else we can go
Speaker 3: after this.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for your time, good luck. I
Speaker 2: hope you get more arrest Thank you.
Speaker 1: Across the three day operation, New South Wales Police charged
Speaker 1: seven hundred and thirty two people, executing two hundred and
Speaker 1: twenty eight arrest warrants and twelve thousand and fifty four
Speaker 1: advo compliance checks. I find three hundred and twenty one
Speaker 1: advo breaches and two hundred and twenty five bail breaches.
Speaker 1: One hundred and eighteen firearms were also seized. When you
Speaker 1: zoom out further and count up all of amarok's work
Speaker 1: over the last three years, they've charged nine thousand and
Speaker 1: sixty seven alleged defenders and laid eighteen thousand, seven hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty six charges. There's no doubt they're impressive numbers.
Speaker 1: New South Wales Police has always said the goal is
Speaker 1: to show how relentless they are when it comes to
Speaker 1: this crime. AMAROK is certainly proving to be a high
Speaker 1: visibility crackdown and it's pretty intimidating. I asked Superintendent Danielle
Speaker 1: Emerton for some feedback on how it's been going. I'm interested.
Speaker 1: I know that this operation is targeting high risk domestic
Speaker 1: violence offenders. What exactly does that mean? What kind of
Speaker 1: offenders are we looking at?
Speaker 5: So if the operation is intelligence led and offender focused,
Speaker 5: so it aims to ensure the safety and well being
Speaker 5: of domestic and family violence victims and the broader community.
Speaker 5: So we're looking at offenders who have that access, capability
Speaker 5: and intent of harming their victims.
Speaker 1: Does that mean it's often repeat offenders or people that
Speaker 1: have been in the sites of police for a while.
Speaker 5: Yes, usually that is the case. We have intelligence that
Speaker 5: will direct our police to those offenders.
Speaker 1: I know you've done fourteen iterations. Would the same names
Speaker 1: be coming up in those arrests?
Speaker 5: Yeah? Often, Yes, they are repeat offenders. A lot of
Speaker 5: them have outstanding warrants, prohibition orders and weapons probition orders
Speaker 5: that we go and do compliance checks on. So yeah,
Speaker 5: that's what Operation and Rock is all about us as
Speaker 5: checking and on the compliance of offenders who have existing
Speaker 5: apprehended violence orders and the like.
Speaker 1: Do you have a breakdown or no, even anecdotally if
Speaker 1: it's more men or more women being arrested.
Speaker 5: I do have a statewide gender breakdown. Okay, great, they
Speaker 5: are wise for Operation and Rock fourteen, so there were
Speaker 5: twenty seven percent female offenders and seventy three percent male.
Speaker 1: Okay, so it is majority alleged male perpetrators.
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's correct.
Speaker 1: And are the majority of those charges around intimate partner violence?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Is it working? Is the operation helping people?
Speaker 5: Absolutely? It's getting really serious offenders back behind bars. It's
Speaker 5: also ensuring that they know that police are onto them,
Speaker 5: particularly now that we're working in partnership and with cross
Speaker 5: border policing, so we're working with a joint operation with
Speaker 5: ACT Policing and AFP and ACT Policing. They've modeled their
Speaker 5: Operation Shepherd on Operation am Rocks, so we've got that
Speaker 5: they've got an operational blueprint and strategies and resources to
Speaker 5: help them organize their first operation. Domestic violence is a
Speaker 5: crime that affects all communities and it remains a scourge
Speaker 5: on our society, so we're pleased to be able to
Speaker 5: share our successful operation with another law enforcement jurisdiction. The
Speaker 5: number of arrests and charges are a huge for this
Speaker 5: operation and in previous Amrock operations, and it sort of
Speaker 5: talks to the scale of domestic violence in New South Wales.
Speaker 5: The numbers are concerning and one incident of domestic violence
Speaker 5: is one too many. During the operation, we deploy all
Speaker 5: available resources, including specialist officers, to surge and use intelligence
Speaker 5: led approaches to target offenders that and we see these
Speaker 5: good results.
Speaker 1: Obviously, with those huge amount of numbers, there's victims at
Speaker 1: the other ends of those So have you heard from victims.
Speaker 1: I know you guys are mainly arresting and you know
Speaker 1: placing abos and stuff. But have you had any feedback
Speaker 1: from the victims on how they feel about it?
Speaker 5: Well? Yes, in cases that will the police will attend homes,
Speaker 5: we do get to speak with victims. Obviously, a compliance
Speaker 5: check of an apprehendive domestic violence order involves the speaking
Speaker 5: to both parties, so the person in need of protection
Speaker 5: and the defendant. So police do get to speak in
Speaker 5: firsthand to our victims, and anecdotally we are told that
Speaker 5: you know, often these domestic violence incidences occur behind closed doors,
Speaker 5: so it's the time that they're actually usually very relieved
Speaker 5: that police are ensuring that the compliance of these orders
Speaker 5: is occurring.
Speaker 1: I couldn't help but notice doing a ride along with
Speaker 1: some offices in Redfern on Friday, that one hundred percent
Speaker 1: of the places we went to were lowest socio economic areas,
Speaker 1: low lower socioeconomic housing. I know that DV, We all
Speaker 1: know that DV happens in any postcode, no matter where
Speaker 1: you live. Is what I witnessed an accurate representation that
Speaker 1: a lot of these arrests are happening in those lower
Speaker 1: socio economic areas.
Speaker 5: No domestic and family violence occurs in all socioeconomic areas,
Speaker 5: it knows no bounds that it doesn't discriminate. We respond
Speaker 5: to one hundred and sixty thousand incidences of domestic violence
Speaker 5: every year, which is one every three minutes, so and
Speaker 5: also responding to domestic violence incidents takes up sixty percent
Speaker 5: of police time. So we are seeing it in all
Speaker 5: walks of life, all socioeconomic backgrounds, all different cultures. And yeah,
Speaker 5: it's definitely it's a huge problem, and it's a whole
Speaker 5: of government and society problem. And obviously police cannot arrest
Speaker 5: our way out of this issue alone.
Speaker 1: What's the plan from here? This has been going on
Speaker 1: since twenty twenty three, We've got another three years left
Speaker 1: of Operation Amarok.
Speaker 5: Well, we've also launched other additional operations throughout the year,
Speaker 5: including Operation Search to target domestic violence offenders. So will
Speaker 5: work every day. It's not just during these operations to
Speaker 5: investigate domestic violence incidences and arrest offenders. So while this
Speaker 5: Operation Operation Amarock has been held over three days on
Speaker 5: this occasion, it forms part of an ongoing year round
Speaker 5: strategy to apprehend our high risk offenders.
Speaker 1: Perfect, I think we'll leave it there. Thank you so much, Superintendent, No,
Speaker 1: thank you. If I'm being honest, it wasn't quite the
Speaker 1: answer I was after. Because while no one is outwardly
Speaker 1: against the Blitz, I've seen quite a lot of discussion
Speaker 1: from DV services saying they need more resourcing and funding
Speaker 1: to deal with the fallout because when police enforcement ramps up,
Speaker 1: so do their referrals. Right now, these frontline services are
Speaker 1: operating at above one hundred and fifty percent of their
Speaker 1: funded capacity, and the bottom line is they're struggling to
Speaker 1: keep up with demand. Both Domestic Violence New South Wales
Speaker 1: and full Stop Australia have told the ABC the stronger
Speaker 1: police response needs to be matched with a properly funded
Speaker 1: support sector. In my search for answers, I asked New
Speaker 1: South Wales Police Minister Yasmin Catley how she measured success
Speaker 1: in this operation beyond the number of arrests.
Speaker 6: Oh well, domestic violence not increasing. That would be the
Speaker 6: real measure of success. Right are spoken on this program
Speaker 6: before about you know it's going up. So the success
Speaker 6: is not certainly measured by arrests, but it's keeping we
Speaker 6: were safe and that's important, that's really important. Unfortunately, in
Speaker 6: my role as police minister, I've seen too many women
Speaker 6: lose their lives at the hands of their intimate partner.
Speaker 6: That has to stop. That just has to stop. And
Speaker 6: we're doing our bit, certainly in police, but broadly community
Speaker 6: needs to do more too. We all need to, you know,
Speaker 6: be and I know that you know, various cohorts have
Speaker 6: different views, but you know, I'm just really I believe anyway,
Speaker 6: as a woman and as a mother, I believe that
Speaker 6: you know, you have to say something if you know something.
Speaker 6: If I'm a girlfriend and my girlfriend's in a situation
Speaker 6: where she's experiencing domestic clots, I'd like her to talk
Speaker 6: to me about it, and her and I to have
Speaker 6: that conversation. I'd like my daughters to be able to
Speaker 6: talk to one another and to talk to their friends
Speaker 6: so that they can have that conversation about They may
Speaker 6: not want to go to police, and that's okay. They
Speaker 6: need to be talking to someone and getting some advice
Speaker 6: someone to do, because otherwise they could be putting their
Speaker 6: life at risk and those outcomes are not what we
Speaker 6: want to see or hear about.
Speaker 1: In the twenty twenty six to twenty twenty seven budget,
Speaker 1: an additional one hundred and eighty four million was dedicated
Speaker 1: to six frontline specialist DV programs over four years, which
Speaker 1: sounds amazing, but they've had no increase in funding for
Speaker 1: a decade, so even a fifty percent boost is just
Speaker 1: catching up on accumulated under investment, not funding new growth. Ultimately,
Speaker 1: this is a good news story. We want our police
Speaker 1: to take DV seriously, and they are. We want high
Speaker 1: risk repeat offenders to be targeted and put on notice,
Speaker 1: and they are. We're just missing that support services element
Speaker 1: to be taken just as seriously. I've had some time
Speaker 1: to digest the morning and really think about what I
Speaker 1: saw and watch the videos back of me pre operation,
Speaker 1: what I thought I was going to be getting in
Speaker 1: two I feel quite sad having witnessed that was two
Speaker 1: women arrested, a much younger woman and then a much
Speaker 1: older woman, and then two men, a younger man and
Speaker 1: an older man, and speaking to the officers. You know,
Speaker 1: of course it's domestic relationships like a romantic relationships that
Speaker 1: take up a lot of this work, but it's also families.
Speaker 1: So those first two arrests, you know, they were three
Speaker 1: generations of the one family that they were trying to arrest,
Speaker 1: the grandson, the mother, the grandmother, and it's not the
Speaker 1: first time that they've been arrested, and this is just
Speaker 1: a cycle. You know. The other thing that I am
Speaker 1: reflecting on a lot is all of the arrests we
Speaker 1: went to, and all of the places we tried to
Speaker 1: arrest in were all in lower socio economic areas or housing.
Speaker 1: And we know that domestic violence happens everywhere, no matter
Speaker 1: where you live, no matter how rich you are, no
Speaker 1: matter how poor you are. But this operation is targeting
Speaker 1: repeat offenders. And I couldn't help but notice where we were,
Speaker 1: and then you can't help but think about all of
Speaker 1: the other factors that might be at play. All of
Speaker 1: the officers involved in the operation I was a part
Speaker 1: of were in plain clothes, and they told me that
Speaker 1: they do that because one they want to surprise the
Speaker 1: people that they're resting, and two because it makes victims
Speaker 1: more comfortable they want to talk to them more. But
Speaker 1: it was just really weird to see all of these
Speaker 1: different officers. At the first arrest we went to, I
Speaker 1: thought one of the what turned out to be officer
Speaker 1: was just a nosey, busybody. You know, he was wearing
Speaker 1: a beanie, he was leaning on the fence and it
Speaker 1: wasn't until I saw the gun in the holster that
Speaker 1: I realized that he was a cop. Another cop at
Speaker 1: the second arrest was wearing a run Faster pasta shirt.
Speaker 1: You know, something you might see on someone down at
Speaker 1: the local pub on a Saturday. But that's how they roll,
Speaker 1: especially when it comes to arresting people that are evading arrest.
Speaker 1: All four of the offenders can quietly came willingly into
Speaker 1: the police cars, but they were all people that were
Speaker 1: being arrested for violent offenses in the domestic violence space.
Speaker 1: But looking at them in a cop car or looking
Speaker 1: at them on a street, you don't see that. And
Speaker 1: I think that's the important thing to remember that these
Speaker 1: people don't look scary, but you don't know what's happening
Speaker 1: behind closed doors. Thank you for joining us for this
Speaker 1: special episode of True Crime Conversations. Make sure to subscribe
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Speaker 1: See you soon with another True Crime Conversation
Speaker 4: FO