Drones lead to nine arrests and four bikes impounded in Peninsula hoon crackdown

Police on the Mornington Peninsula went looking for dirt bike riders and started pulling in everything else.

Operation Track was set up by the newly formed High Visibility Community Engagement Team to deal with trail bikes, monkey bikes and overpowered e-bikes, after complaints from residents in Hastings, Rosebud and Mornington.

The new part is the drones. Operators in the air guide officers on the ground to riders who would otherwise be gone before a divisional van got near them.

On July 4 a man was spotted on a motorbike with no plates. It had been stolen from Pakenham in 2022.

Drone operators talked officers onto him. The 55-year-old was arrested on an outstanding warrant for an alleged assault during a road rage incident on May 19, and charged with riding a stolen motorcycle, disqualified riding and criminal damage. He was bailed to appear in Frankston Magistrates' Court on September 2.

During that same arrest police picked up a 24-year-old wanted on eight outstanding warrants for alleged family violence offences. He was remanded, pleaded guilty on July 14, and was convicted and given a 12-month community corrections order.

On July 24, drone operators tracked an allegedly stolen Toyota Celica through Westpark in Hastings. The car stopped and the driver allegedly ran into a house. A 22-year-old Crib Point man was charged with 16 offences including theft of a motor vehicle, unlicensed driving and handling stolen goods, and bailed to October 9.

Investigators also believe motorcycles were ridden across the lawn at Hastings Police Station twice, on July 6 and July 8. A 22-year-old Hastings man was arrested, a search warrant turned up a firearm, and he is expected to be charged on summons. Police say further arrests are expected.

Two men, 20 and 21, were tracked down after allegedly riding unregistered dirt bikes dangerously, doing monos, then posting it online. Warrants were executed in Rosebud and Dromana. Two bikes were seized along with phones and clothing, and the pair are expected to be charged with reckless conduct endangering life.

In its first two months, Operation Track has impounded four unregistered motorcycles, recovered a stolen car and a stolen motorbike, and made nine arrests.

“Many of the riders have little to no protective equipment and are travelling at excessive speeds; a recipe for serious injury or death if they lose control,” Local Area Commander Inspector Ivan Petrunic said.

Petrunic said police had also been talking to parents before they bought their children a bike.

The Peninsula operation sits inside a wider push. Victoria Police issued 275 infringements during Operation Consider in June, 174 of them to e-bike riders. When the same operation ran in the CBD last year, 52 per cent of the e-bikes stopped were overpowered.

An e-bike is legal if the motor is 250 watts or under and the assistance cuts out at 25km/h. Above that it is a motor vehicle, and one that cannot be registered at all.

The bikes brought the drone. They are the smallest thing it is catching.