Almost 600 people have been arrested and more than 1,000 charges laid across New South Wales in a police operation targeting domestic and family violence. The four-day blitz under the latest Operation Amarok resulted in 592 arrests and 1,107 charges, along with 22 guns being seized.
It comes as police say more than half of the state’s murders are domestic violence related. Since its launch in January this year, Operation Amarok has seen a total of 1,884 people arrested following efforts in February, April and July.
In the past week, 139 of the total people arrested were labelled by police as the 'most dangerous domestic violence offenders', while 103 had outstanding warrants for violent offences. NSW Police Deputy Commissioner Mal Lanyon said domestic violence was a 'cowardly offence'.
'The statistics are staggering, the statistics are frightening but each of those is a person,' he said. Deputy Commissioner Lanyon said he would be looking to coordinate stronger laws with the state government to elevate domestic violence, adding that serious perpetrators needed to be 'treated in the same way as organised criminals or terrorist offenders'.
However, Tara Hunter, chief executive of women's counselling service Full Stop Australia, called the results of the operation an indication of apprehended violence orders falling short. 'What it demonstrates is that there are a lot of people out there that are not complying with AVOs,' she said.
Ms Hunter said that in the past eight days, five women were alleged victims of domestic violence related homicides. She argued that more police powers will not mean fewer offences, stating, 'We know domestic and family violence is one of the leading causes of homelessness, so it's not just about increasing policing powers, that's a simplistic response to quite a complex issue.'
