Over one thousand police across Victoria have worked around the clock, keeping a close eye on New Year's Eve celebrations to ensure the community could bring in the new year safely.
Uniform, plain clothes and specialist police saturated key areas including the CBD, St Kilda foreshore, Mornington Peninsula, Surf Coast and Phillip Island to monitor crowd behaviour and maintain public order in one of the quietest New Year's Eve police have seen in years.
As part of the New Year's Eve operation across the state, police made 59 arrests.
Operation Omni was activated in the CBD, St Kilda foreshore, Mornington Peninsula, Surf Coast and Phillip Island, providing officers with additional search powers under the Control of Weapons Act.
Provisional statistics for the night indicate there were also:
- 15 reported assaults with 12 arrests in relation to the assaults
- 17 arrests for drunk
- 25 arrests for drug related offences
- 5 weapon searches resulting in 5 arrests
- 287 preliminary breath tests conducted
- 27 penalty infringement notices for traffic offences however nil drink or drug drivers were detected
The level of offending was significantly lower than previous years, with 193 arrests recorded for the New Year's Eve period over 2019-2020.
Quotes attributable to Deputy Commissioner Rick Nugent
"New Year's Eve is traditionally one of our biggest state-wide policing operations. Over a thousand police officers have been working hard at all hours of the day and night to keep the community safe."
"This New Year's Eve was one of the quietest we have seen in decades. It was pleasing to see the majority of Victorians celebrating the new year safely by taking responsibility for their own behaviour and looking out for their mates."
"As always, there were a small number of people who chose to do the wrong thing. Those people faced a swift and firm response from police so that the broader community was not impacted by their actions."
"It appears that the majority of the community were quickly adaptive to the Chief Health Officer directions which came into effect yesterday evening, with many choosing to stay home in small numbers."
