Rivers of alcohol poured down the drain
Rivers of beer, spirits and wine were seized and poured down the drain during a police crackdown in Broome lasting less than 20 hours.
The operation targeting antisocial behaviour and domestic violence last Wednesday and Thursday saw 424 cans of full-strength alcohol confiscated from the town centre, along with 19 bottles of spirits and 25 bottles of wine.
Five people were arrested, 57 liquor infringements were handed out and 17 move-on notices were issued.
Police converged on known drinking hotspots, including carparks, reserves, pubs and bottle shops on the two days between 10am and 6pm.
The Shire of Broome provided five rangers to enforce camping and littering by-laws, breaches of the Dog Act and poor driver behaviour on local government reserves such as Cable Beach and Gantheaume Point.
Broome policemen Sergeant Paul World and Acting Sgt Daniel Fisher headed the sting after receiving a number of public complaints in relation to street drinking around Town Beach and Male Oval.
"The trend we have noticed is that if we have been busy with other duties throughout the day and have not had enough time to dedicate to those areas as we would like, we find they lead on to further incidents in the night-time," Sgt Fisher said.
"This operation was to try to break that cycle and was not a one-off.
"We will continue to throughout the next couple of months and into the future."
Sgt Fisher said he was not shocked by the amount of alcohol seized.
"We knew we would catch a lot more people than we normally would because we were being covert with our patrols," he said.
"Usually we would do our patrols in vehicles, but on these occasions we were on foot."
He said a long-term solution could not be achieved by police alone.
"There are a lot of other agencies and people that need to get involved to combat the issues," he said.
"It is not something we can solve in a couple of days … it is something we need to manage and get other agencies and individuals involved and work to keep on top of."
