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Cops man Broome bottle shops in bid to reduce violence

Glenn Cordingley and Nicola KalmarBroome Advertiser
Broome police at a local bottleshop. Photo: Nicola Kalmar
Camera IconBroome police at a local bottleshop. Photo: Nicola Kalmar

Police officers have manned bottle shops in Broome to help prevent alcohol related violence at the cash registers, especially at night.

The operation was mounted yesterday and headed by Kimberley District Superintendent Allan Adams.

“I am aware the effort has created a reasonable amount of interest within the Broome community, however, we are still analysing the results to see what benefit the Broome community got from their police officer’s focus so it will be a little while until we are ready to broadly discuss the outcomes,” Supt Adams said.

Supt Adams said he had consulted with the voluntary Broome Liquor Accord about implementing plans to potentially find “some level of resolution to the unacceptably high levels of alcohol fuelled violence across the town and the Kimberley”.

“I have committed to those accord members that I will always engage in open and honest communication and in that spirit I believe it is fair that I first speak to them first about the outcomes and most importantly where to from here,” he said.

He appreciated the community was “possibly inconvenienced” yesterday and that “I know some weren’t happy with what we were doing”.

“I respect those positions but ultimately I am charged with improving the safety and security of the entire Kimberley community and whilst alcohol continues to be the catalyst to the majority of harm across the Kimberley I will continue to look at different ways of deploying police officers to counter its effect,” he said.

“I’m not dismissing those that disapprove of what we are doing, your feedback is an important part of the community solving this problem but I would ask that it be accompanied with the reason you disapprove and most importantly an alternative resolution.”

BWS Carnarvon Street store manager Michael Kaufman said customers were surprised to see a police presence at the outlet.

“They asked us why they were getting checked for ID…so we explained what was occurring.”

Despite business being a little quieter than usual, Mr Kaufman said he thought the operation was fantastic and supported the initiative.

“We had a lot of refusals, which was really good,” he said.

“We’re keen to support the police and the direction they give us.”

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