Hoons in Ballarat as the focus of a new crackdown by Victoria Police, which has established a targeted squad to stamp out anti-social driving.
The Ballarat High Risk Driving Team has been formed after residents of the Victorian city gave community feedback in forums and police surveys about the growing amount of hoon activity in the region.
As a result, the Ballarat High Risk Driving Team will “saturate hot spot areas, proactively monitor recidivist hoons and investigate all hoon reports to hold offenders to account”, according to Victoria Police.
In addition to this, they will follow up on incidents where police have been unable to make arrests due to safety concerns, as well as conduct regular door knocks and patrols of areas offenders are known to frequent to ensure they are complying with bail conditions and licence suspensions.
The new team will work closely with both the Ballarat Highway Patrol and Ballarat Uniform police departments.
“We know the community is rightly sick of hoon behaviour and so we are,” said Ballarat Local Area Commander, Acting Inspector Brad Hall.
“Not only is it noisy, irritating and damaging to our roads but it is outright dangerous behaviour that could lead to fatal consequences.
“That’s why we have launched this new team whose sole focus is to identify, arrest and monitor hoons. Our message to recidivist hoons is clear – your time is up.
“If you choose to offend you won’t just be facing serious criminal charges but continued monitoring from our high-risk driving team.
“Even if you get away with it on the night, know it won’t be long until police are knocking on your door.”
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