WA Police has rolled out a new method to patrol the ever-growing Scarborough Beach foreshore precinct to improve their mobility through busy crowds and ensure the safety of patrons.
Police officers on bicycles have been operating at the foreshore since December, according to Scarborough Police officer-in-charge Haydn Farrow, and has been an integral part of the policing strategy on weekends.
Officers on bikes are deployed to the precinct in peak periods from Thursday to Sunday in the evenings until late.
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READ NOW“Our officers are here to keep the community safe and the addition of these bikes gives them the tools to perform that role more effectively and efficiently,” Sen. Sgt Farrow said.
“The Scarborough Beach precinct is a unique and sometimes challenging environment to navigate for our officers, however they’re now more mobile than ever when called upon to respond to any type of incident.
“Scarborough foreshore can get extremely busy at times and police can be required to respond to a variety of locations, some not accessible by police vehicles. the bikes enable officers to provide a much quicker response to the community’s needs with officers arriving at incidents as they are happening.
“Along with our state-of-the-art CCTV command centre — where officers work in conjunction with the City of Stirling — and our high visibility patrols of the precinct, the community can feel comfortable in the knowledge that police are never far away.
“Since the arrival of the bikes at Scarborough, there has been a real positive community response. The bikes enable the officers to interact with the community on a more personal level and the feedback has been great, not only from the community, but from local businesses as well.”
Rendezvous Hotel Scarborough executive general manager Rhys Challenger said major businesses and organisations in the area were working together with both police and the City of Stirling to ensure a family friendly environment for the public and tourists.
“I think our guests love that Scarborough foreshore comes alive during these periods when the police are on the bikes at the night market and on weekends,” he said.
“The bikes on the waterfront is a great initiative, it’s a great way to have the local police front and centre and interacting in a casual way with our guests.
“Police can access areas that the patrol cars don’t, there’s patrol cars along the waterfront sometimes and it’s a great deterrent but it’s also a bit intrusive, whereas I think having the police on bikes is a lot more friendly.
“We’re always happy to assist the police in any way to do with any community initiative.
“We will have anything up from 500 to 600 guests per night and they do flow down into the restaurants and bars and into the areas downstairs and markets, so it’s great for us.”
WA Police data found that assaults in the suburb of Scarborough have decreased from 146 reported incidents in 2021 to 92 reported incidents in 2023.