A decade of holding gangs to account

Editorial: Jesse Wray-McCann

After more than 10 years of foiling murders, shootings, drug trafficking, arson attacks and more, former and current Echo Taskforce Officers-in-Charge (OIC) have recounted the taskforce’s decade of operations.

Four of Echo’s five OICs – Inspector Chris Murray (2011-2012), Insp Ian Campbell (2012-2015), Commander Martin O’Brien (2015-2018) and Insp Graham Banks (2019-current) – recently gathered to reflect on their time in the taskforce.

They all agreed that the enforcement of outlaw motorcycle gangs (OMCGs), organised crime entities and street gangs in Victoria had changed and evolved significantly since the start of the Echo Taskforce in 2011.

Insp Chris Murray was the first head of the taskforce and said the biggest change came from within Victoria Police itself.

“Just prior to 2011, we were not hearing or seeing OMCG-related issues and the thinking was that they mustn’t be a problem,” Insp Murray said.

“It’s only when we scratched the surface that we saw the festering issues.”

The escalating numbers of people arriving at hospitals with gunshot wounds who refused to cooperate with police was a concern.

“We saw time and time again, they were a law unto themselves,” he said.

“We were out of the game and we wanted to get back in and start policing them and policing them heavily.”

Arrests like this have been common scenes throughout the Echo Taskforce’s more than 10 years of existence.

Insp Ian Campbell said other states already had OMCG-specific police taskforces, which resulted in OMCGs pouring into Victoria.

“Other states, especially Queensland and New South Wales, had started to introduce legislation to support the policing of OMCGs, so we became a bit more of an easy target for them,” Insp Campbell said.

In 2015, Echo merged with the Santiago Taskforce, which focused on organised crime entities.

Cmdr O’Brien said that, as Echo and the groups it policed continued to evolve, there was one consistent theme for all the OICs.

“A common thread through everyone’s time has been that push for intel – knowing who’s who, who’s moving around and who the key players are,” Cmdr O’Brien said.

“Through covert and overt intel gathering, we’ve prevented shootings, murders, arsons and a number of other serious crimes.”

One of the taskforce’s high points has been its involvement in Operation Ironside – a three-year covert operation run by authorities across the world that targeted organised crime syndicates using encrypted communications.

It culminated on 7 June last year with hundreds of arrests and seizures of drugs and weapons across the globe, including 58 arrests in Victoria.

Insp Graham Banks said the impact of Operation Ironside was widespread thanks to proactive policing from the Echo Taskforce.

“What the public saw was that end result, the day of resolution with a lot of warrants, but the leadup to that was months of actions we undertook to stop murders, significant violence, seize significant quantities of drugs on route to other places and seize firearms,” Insp Banks said.

“And we had to do it all in a way that wasn’t going to blow the overall operation.”

Insp Banks said the taskforce would continue with its proactive focus into the future.

“With the OMCGs and organised crime entities, we are predicting who is seeking to control serious and organised crime, and with gangs, we’re predicting who is trying to influence and direct young, easily-influenced people.

“We want to disrupt and dismantle them.”

Assistant Commissioner Bob Hill said the Echo Taskforce’s achievements had been “nothing short of extraordinary.”

“OMCGs, organised crime entities and crime gangs continue to be a priority for Victoria Police,” AC Hill said.

“While there is much to celebrate for this anniversary, our work continues and the methodology as to how we target and disrupt these groups continues to evolve.”