Hunting under beds, inside roof spaces and within car boots, the longest-running ACT police property crime operation in more than 20 years has now racked up more than 500 apprehensions.
When 27-year-old fugitive Nicholas Peter climbed out of the boot of a Honda and was placed in handcuffs on Kingsford Smith Drive, Florey earlier this month, he was yet another arrest for Operation Toric, the two-year-long intelligence-led targeting of recidivist offenders
Peter had been on the run from police for two weeks, intermittently spotted driving a black Audi SUV or riding a blue motorcycle. The public were warned not to approach him because he may have a firearm.
At his court appearance early this month, it was submitted that the alleged offender had been out on parole when he embarked on a range of serious driving offences including failing to stop for police.
Bail was refused, and Op Toric racked up another success.
Since then, the Toric teams have kept up the pressure with a 16-year-old boy arrested for serious driving offences on Sunday, August 11, and a day later, a 35-year-old man for threat to kill and assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
Since Op Toric was set up in August 2022, more than 1470 offences have been laid including motor vehicle thefts, burglaries, robberies, dangerous driving and other crimes across the ACT.
Of those charged, 200 were on bail at the time of their arrest, while 118 were subject to conditions such as good behaviour orders, intensive corrections orders, or on parole.
Police in the ACT had long been aware that a significant percentage of the territory's property crime - particularly motor vehicle theft as a precursor to offences such as commercial and residential burglary - was committed by a group of largely well-known repeat offenders.
Many of them had little or no respect for authority, would speed away from police and use tactics - like driving on the wrong side of the road - to shake a pursuit.
So the cops built a scheme to beat them, selecting the best young talent from each of their five ACT stations, putting them in plain clothes and unmarked cars and revolving them through Op Toric, where they would be led by experienced detectives and fuelled by fresh intelligence every week.
Detective Acting Inspector Jason Dziubinski said the long-running operation had been "incredibly successful".
"These offences place innocent members of the community at risk, not just those who are engaged in dangerous, criminal behaviour.
"Our apprehension numbers from Operation TORIC indicate these offences are trending down, with around 300 apprehensions in TORIC's first year, and around 200 in the past year.
"While apprehension numbers have dropped year-on-year, this likely indicates reduced incidents of offending, in tandem with the fact that individuals engaged in these acts have been arrested and put before the courts."
