Residents in Perth’s northern suburbs still facing a swathe of anti-social and dangerous behaviour stemming from the use of illegal e-rideables are calling for more police resourcing to be deployed to manage the situation.
Peter Fuhrmann, who lives along West Coast Drive, sees the problem daily.
“They come tearing down the road doing wheel stands, with no lights on or helmets, creating problems for drivers along an already congested stretch of road, weaving in and out of cars,” he said.
“It would be easy for a car that is turning, or using a roundabout, to clip them.
“The e-bikes and the like are also always speeding along the shared footpath, and there are elderly people or parents with prams that have to get out of the way.”
Fuhrmann said there had been a “blasé” response to the issue so far.
“I’m surprised more people haven’t been killed,” he said.
“We really need police funding to tackle this in our area.”
But northern suburbs that fall under the jurisdiction of Joondalup police have seen a major reduction in issues related to e-rideables, following funding from the state government for officers to undertake Operation Moorhead.
That operation was launched in early January after ongoing reports from the public, and has since resulted in the seizure of illegal bikes and scooters, often from teenagers.
But suburbs under the jurisdiction of Mirrabooka police, like North Beach, Watermans Bay, Trigg, Gwelup and Carine, have not been able to reap those rewards, according to Member for Carine Liam Staltari.
Staltari was recently sent photographs from a woman who was accosted at Charles Riley Reserve in North Beach by teenage boys on e-rideables.
He has received many similar complaints and said it was a “constant concern”.
Staltari spoke in parliament on Thursday to raise those concerns with Police Minister Reece Whitby.
“Last year, the concern in my community was immense. Residents were contacting my office near daily,” he said.
“Parents were worried about walking their kids to local parks, seniors weren’t willing to go for their normal walk along West Coast Drive and sporting precincts were being disrupted by large groups of reckless e-riders in organised ride outs.
“In the time since, this issue has not gone away – far from it. Not a week goes by where it is not being raised with me.”
Staltari said Operation Moorhead had proved multiple arrests, the seizure and crushing of illegal bikes and the shutting down of ride-outs was possible and had received good feedback.
“But the issue is that Operation Moorhead was limited in scope. It made a difference in Joondalup, but other areas have been left high and dry,” he said.
“This bad behaviour, as we know, it does not start and end at one arbitrary police district line by nature – it traverses up and down the northern suburbs.
“West Coast Drive, North Beach Road, Marmion Avenue and others often left with reckless e-riders tearing around, playing chicken with cars; young punks on the side of the road, throwing rocks and water balloons at passing vehicles, terrifying and frustrating locals.”
He said police did a remarkable job, but were struggling because they were understaffed and underresourced.
“They are stretched thinner and thinner with less bandwidth to deal with these types of issues, and I’ve often had serving police officers tell me that explicitly, they simply don’t have the numbers to deal with these types of perpetrators,” Staltari said.
“We need to expand Operation Moorhead and the crackdown on illegal e-bikes and e-scooters across the northern suburbs.
“We need tougher penalties. We need stronger public messaging and education. We need more resources for road policing.”
Whitby acknowledged this was an important issue for northern suburbs residents.
“Earlier this year, Moorhead sent a powerful message to those using e-ridables for anti-social behaviour: it will not be tolerated,” he said.
“Thanks to the incredible work of WA Police, 76 illegal e-rideables were seized, and they were crushed, and 76 offenders were charged with a total of 183 offences.”
He said the strategies from Operation Moorhead “have been embedded into business as usual across all policing districts”.
“Defined phases of Operation Moorhead can be reactivated at locations where high numbers of e-ridable related incidents are reported, especially during high-risk periods including school holidays,” Whitby said.
“Not all police actions have a dedicated operation name or a media statement attached to them. This does not mean that the actions are not continuing.”
