Update on Mid North Coast police pursuit | May 22, 2024 | Port Macquarie News - video Dailymotion

Det Insp Peter O'Reilly provides an update on the arrest of six teenagers involved in a police pursuit on the Pacific Highway.

Transcript

00:00 So about 6am this morning, police from a number of districts, Mid North Coast, Manning Great Lakes

00:06 districts and Port Stephens were involved in an operation to stop two stolen motor vehicles that

00:12 were travelling on the Pacific Highway. About 6am, the Traffic and Highway Patrol and the Mid

00:19 North Coast district stopped a vehicle near the Bagot Forest Road on the Pacific Highway

00:24 and arrested five offenders. They were taken into custody and brought to Port Macquarie Police

00:29 Station. A short time later, police conducting an operation in Taree arrested, stopped a second

00:36 vehicle and another offender was arrested and taken to Taree Police Station. So police were

00:42 conducting an operation to effect the arrest of these individuals as safely as possible

00:47 and the tyre deflation devices were deployed successfully. Police were alleged that these

00:52 vehicles had earlier been involved in some other matters down in the Hunter Valley near Maitland.

00:58 The vehicle that was stopped on Bagot Forest or near Bagot Forest Road was stolen in Musselbrook

01:04 and we're also investigating links back to further offences in the Tamworth area and Willow Tree.

01:10 There was a number of break and enters that occurred where the cars were then stolen. We'll

01:16 allege in time that the vehicles are then linked to traffic offences and pursuits. What we're seeing

01:23 is very dangerous behaviour committed unfortunately by young people. Young people driving vehicles at

01:32 very high speeds, endangering themselves but endangering the public as well. And we're also

01:38 seeing these people entering homes with weapons again creating significant risk to good people

01:46 in the community. We've certainly seen a significant rise I think across New South Wales with this type

01:52 of offending and what we're seeing regionally is links between offenders from the North Coast

01:59 and Newcastle and then out into the western areas around Tamworth. Prior to this investigation it's

02:05 certainly been apparent that there has been links with social media and that appears to

02:09 be one of the drivers for this offending.

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