COVID-19: Protecting at home and away

Editorial: Danielle Ford

Photography: Grant Condon

With the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic effecting almost every aspect of daily life, Victoria Police worked hard to ensure it identified every possible way to ensure the safety of the community.

One area viewed as a priority for the organisation to provide community reassurance in was family violence, leading to the creation of Operation Ribbon.

Launched on April 13, the operation involved members of dedicated Family Violence Investigation Units (FVIUs) reaching out to Victorians who were deemed to be at risk.

The operation was shown to be of incredible value, with more than 6,300 checks conducted between 13 April and 31 May, resulting in the identification of about 2,300 criminal offences. Of these offences, more than 1,800 were family violence-related.

This led to 1,182 intervention order (IVO) contraventions being detected by police, 250 people being remanded in custody, 96 summonses issued and 116 people being placed on bail.

Family Violence Command Inspector Tim Tucker said the numbers show the high level of engagement during the COVID-19 response.

“The idea behind Operation Ribbon was to provide the community reassurance that police are out there ensuring an increased focus on the safety and wellbeing of affected family members and vulnerable families,” Insp Tucker said.

“What it has also done is show how hard the members of our FVIUs are working each day. The operation has put in place a reporting structure that is able to capture and record these high numbers of checks and engagement with the community that are happening every day.”

Detective Senior Sergeant Andrea Turner is a member of one of these dedicated units.

Working in the Bendigo FVIU, Det Sen Sgt Turner said the reporting structure Operation Ribbon enabled shone a light on the vital work of family violence investigators and how prevalent the crime is in the community.

“Operation Ribbon requires us to centrally report all the work we are doing,” Det Sen Sgt Turner said.

“Every day of the year, members of our team are doing the same work, but during the isolation period Operation Ribbon provided a well-structured, centralised reporting framework that allowed a greater oversight of cases at a state level.

“Jobs are allocated to individual members who then conduct face-to-face visits with affected family members or respondents to engage with them and work with them to ensure they are connected with the support services they need for their particular situation.”

Family Violence Command Assistant Commissioner Dean McWhirter said the work of all members of FVIUs across the state is outstanding and the added emphasis Operation Ribbon placed on their role is something that cannot be undervalued by the organisation or the community.

“It showed the community that the Victoria Police response to family violence was maintained during the pandemic. More importantly, it showed we are committed to that response at all times,” AC McWhirter said.

While Victoria Police ran several of its own operations to enhance community safety during the pandemic, it also played a part in the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) led Operation Soteria.

Police helped escort more than 10,000 travellers into quarantine during the first two months of Operation Soteria.

Soteria was the multi-agency operation that facilitated the return of people from overseas and oversaw the 14-day quarantine period they were to undertake at hotels.

In the first two months of the operation, which started on 29 March, about 13,000 travellers were transported from the airports to hotels for quarantine.

Victoria Police provided about 30 officers from the North West Metro Region (NWM) each day to the operation, who provided support during the transport and the check-in and check-out process for travellers in hotels in Melbourne.

NWM Specialist Operations Superintendent Richard Paterson said officers tasked to the operation were also assigned to respond to any criminal incident that occurred at the hotels.

Supt Paterson praised the operation, which continues to run, as a great example of effective collaboration between government departments.

“The operation was led by DHHS but involved Victoria Police, the Department of Jobs Precincts and Regions and the Department of Transport, to list a few,” Supt Paterson said.

“We met a few times a week as part of the operation and each department knew their role and executed it extremely well.

“The quarantining of people returning from overseas was a huge factor in Australia’s success in flattening the curve and being a part of this operation means Victoria Police played a big part in that, which is something we can be really proud of.”