Police say they are making inroads at Williamstown’s crime-plagued
public housing estate despite CCTV security cameras being damaged as
soon as they were installed.
As exclusively reported by the Weekly in June, the St Vincent de Paul Society banned its volunteers from
visiting Nelson Heights due to unacceptable risk of being “assaulted,
robbed or threatened with violence”.
Since our report, urgent crisis talks have been held between the
Department of Human Services and police, resulting in Vinnies volunteers
being allowed back at the flats.
Acting Senior Sergeant Peter Tatter of Williamstown police said
officers were conducting an average of two operations a week at the
high-rise towers.
“There’s a lot of angst among residents,” he said. “There’s a
feeling of insecurity, of antisocial behaviour, of drug activity that’s
occurring in and around the estate.”
Police operations in the past three weeks have resulted in 17
people arrested over property damage, drug offences and family violence.
Stolen cars have also been recovered on the estate.
Williamstown MP Wade Noonan raised the issue in State Parliament following the Weekly report, saying he was “genuinely distressed” at residents being too afraid to leave their apartments.
Sergeant Steve Cook, whose portfolio takes in the flats, said
police were trying to instill confidence in residents to contact police
if they had problems.
“If they want to report crime, sometimes they’re reporting on
their neighbours and there’s that apprehension that the neighbours are
going to retaliate and elevate the issues.
“We’ve had lots of meetings over the last few months; high-level meetings in regards to people from the Department of Human Services.’’
Victoria Police has conducted a safety audit on the buildings and the DHS has improved security.
Police operations are continuing.
