Latest / WA Police Confidential (Formerly Operation Podcast) / Ep 32 - Crocodile Assaulted!

Transcript

Ep 32 - Crocodile Assaulted! · WA Police Confidential (Formerly Operation Podcast)

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: This podcast discusses real-life crimes and law enforcement matters.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_01: It may include detailed descriptions of criminal activity, traumatic incidents, and other content that could be confronting or distressing, particularly for victim survivors.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_01: Listener discretion is advised.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_01: If you find any of these topics upsetting, please consider whether this content is right for you and seek support if needed.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_07: Police at the time have very, very little in the way of leads.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_07: There's blood at the scene from the offender, but no DNA hits.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_07: All they have is a fragment of CCTV from the top down of someone's head entering a deli and a description from the person working in that deli.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_07: How did we catch him?
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_07: Well, we didn't draw guns, we didn't draw tasers, but we did draw Nate with a pencil in this instance.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_07: We're going to speak with one of the legends in police, Detective Sergeant Paul Orsop, about the the art of the sketch, the police sketch.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_07: It's um it's pretty cool.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_07: Um also this week, crocodiles crocodile attack, but not what you think.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_10: Yeah, uh tale of absolute stupidity by two uh juveniles in uh Perth this week.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_10: Uh yeah, hear more about that one.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_07: Absolutely.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_07: And Spider-Man?
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_10: Yeah, that's right.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_07: That's right.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_07: Real life prosecution of someone who, well, appeared to be Spider-Man who was literally hanging above uh a major a major freeway.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_07: Hear more about that later.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_07: And also some pretty stupid stuff on our roads.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_10: Yeah, we're chatting to road policing group officers about a texting truck driver who is allegedly under the influence of men.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_07: Okay, we'll leave that right there and get into it later.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_07: Also, news headlines with it's probably not good news.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_07: This is WA Police Confidential, the official weekly pod of the Western Australia Police Force.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_07: So I'm Joey Katanzaro and I'm Sergeant Nate Gilmore.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_07: And let's get right into it.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_10: You're listening to WA Police Confidential.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_10: Well, they say a picture tells a thousand words.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_10: But when there's no picture at all, sometimes a police sketch can be worth even more.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_10: From identifying offenders to helping solve serious crimes, forensic artists combine witness accounts with investigative expertise to bring faces to life.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_10: Digital forensic supervisor Sergeant Paul Orsup joins us on the pod.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_10: Paul, thanks for coming in.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_07: Not a problem.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_10: What got you?
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_07: Yeah, how did you get into this very interesting uh area of work?
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_08: Well, I started as a cadet back when I was uh 17, straight from school.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_08: Then I went through the academy, uh, came out of the academy and did eight years general duties work, and uh I thought m a lot of my mates were heading into forensics so I thought that'd be an exciting place to go to.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_08: So I joined up, got into crime scene to be a crime scene officer, and then I went to fingerprints for a couple of years, and then I just happened to be in the right place at the right time, and they were after a uh a second forensic artist.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_08: Uh-huh.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_08: And uh they made a job for me, and 30 years later here I am.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_07: So so you must have had some artistic talent, surely.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_08: Did they did they get you to do like a I did well at art at school, and then when I applied for a forensic, I took a whole lot of caricatures and cartoons in into my interview.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_08: So they found out I could draw that way.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_07: And Paul Paul's got a bit of a reputation, listeners, for like also just doing much, much loved caricatures within the agency as well.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_07: Um, yeah, there's there's a few of those floating around that are pretty treasured, I think.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_07: Um, gotta ask you, Paul.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_07: How does it work?
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_07: How do you put together because if someone asked me to draw a picture of Nate and said, you know, spiky hair, brown eyes.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_10: I'm no I'm no oil painting.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_02: I've got a face for the radio.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_07: The result would would also not be an oil painting.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_07: How how do you actually do it?
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_07: How does this work?
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_08: Let's a lot of people ask the same thing when they sit down, they reckon I won't I won't be able to do this, but we what we have at work, we have digital catalogues of facial features.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_08: And uh once I I have a short interview with the with the victim and we get some details on what the baddie looked like, so then from that description I can actually go to certain catalogues that we have, they're all different races, age groups, etc.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_08: And then what we do is we start with and just ask them to pick we go through our facial um sorry, head head catalogue.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_08: And uh big head, little head, red head.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_08: Well, that's it.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_08: Well, it's got so many heads there, it's amazing.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_08: So I just ask them to from the forehead downwards, what we want to do start with is just pick out a face shape.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_08: So we go through and we probably pick out normally between five and and ten face shapes.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_08: What we do is put them on the screen and then we I get them to narrow it down to which one's the closest one or which one I can manipulate the best to get the right face shape.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_08: Then we go from there, we go to what the hair looks like.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_08: So we go into our hair catalogue, go through all them.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_08: Um if I can't find any hair there, I'll go onto the internet, or if they say, Oh, you look like Morgan Freeman's hair or something like that, I can I can actually use that from the internet.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_08: Um then we go to eyes, uh nose, mouth, and then we got all other little bits of features, uh facial lines, you name it, and uh we put a face together.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_10: How long would a process like that go for?
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_08: Well, initially, when we hand drew everything, uh it probably could take up to two hours, but with our digital system, it's probably between 40 minutes and an hour.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_07: Isn't that incredible?
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_07: That's a that's a real that's sort of I guess uh almost it will be a lost art, isn't it?
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_07: The the hand-drawn um sketch.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_08: Yeah, well uh they still do it over in America.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_08: Um I got to go to the FBI and the only way you could get on the course is to be able to hand draw.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_07: So why why is that just because of the traditional?
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_08: I think I think it's tradition and the romance of the old police artist that sits beside the the beside the hospital bed and draws a picture type thing.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_08: But yeah.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_10: Have you got a side gig in court?
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_10: You know, when they do the ones in court.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_10: You could do.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_07: No, had enough of drawing.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_07: Um you think of police officers drawing, you often think of firearms and tasers, but you know, the the mighty pencil in this instance can make a huge difference.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_07: Now, uh can you give us an example, Paul, of a time when um you you've interviewed a a victim or a witness and the clock's been ticking, and basically uh your picture has helped uh solve uh stop prevent this person from maybe offending again or brought someone to justice.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_08: Um probably the one we were speaking about before, uh the Toard Hill homicide.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_08: Yeah.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_08: Uh they uh this perpetrator had uh stabbed this lady to death in front of her two children.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_08: I think they were very young, they were two and and six weeks old or something like that.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_08: Terrifying.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_08: Um he left some DNA at the scene by cutting himself with a knife.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_08: Uh they checked that DNA and it didn't come back to anybody.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_08: So the detectives went to uh a store where someone had said they'd seen someone there and had a picture, uh CC TV footage of him from the top, and they couldn't see the face.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_08: So the detectives took me out there and I interviewed the deli owner and got a a facial image.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_08: And what we did was put it in the in the window of the deli with um any any information call us.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_08: So within a day, uh someone had said, I know that person, I work with them.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_10: Wow.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_08: So that person actually worked at the QET hospital.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_08: Wow.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_08: And uh the detectives went rushing around there and and grabbed this guy and took his DNA and it was the guy.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_08: Wow.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_07: That is incredible.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_07: Um hard okay, and we you know there is no crystal ball, as the commissioner often says, hard to prevent crime.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_07: But stopping someone from committing another offence and um potentially because it's your drawings who have done it, your compass feels pretty good.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_07: It does.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_08: Well, I mean, I must say the first couple I got pretty close.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_08: I was pretty pretty excited.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_08: But after 30 years, you're kind of uh it's if you if you're uh if you get good at your job, it kind of it goes with the it goes with it.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_07: Now I'm curious is there in in you know this this niche skill set of yours, is this where the the uh uh is this where the phrase uh he looks like a sketchy character comes from?
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_07: It's a genuine question, by the way.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_07: This is not a joke.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_08: I couldn't tell you.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_08: I could I I I could say that everybody that come in when I when I uh were doing it doing a picture, if I got a dollar for everybody that said this, is um how do you how do you draw like that?
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_08: I I couldn't even draw a stick man.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_08: If I had a dollar for everybody that said that, I'd be quite a rich bloke.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_07: Yeah, fair, fair.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_07: Um well, you know, if there is a uh a stick-like man looking character out there, he's probably escaped justice for betting.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_08: I've seen I've seen a couple of comedies where they the the um picture looks like Mr.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_08: Potato Head, and next thing Mr.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_08: Potato Head's getting dragged in.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_10: I've got to ask, are you are you really good at the game, guess who?
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_08: Oh, it's about oh, I wanted to crush you must crush that game.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_08: Uh haven't really played it, but my wife gets really mad because I always ask, well, I always tell her when we're walking through the shopping centre, I think I've seen that person look for someone.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_07: Um I suppose it's not just criminals as well.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_07: Do you have you ever had to do um you know composites of people who maybe uh have information police are looking for?
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_08: Have done that for investigations before.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_08: Um done a lot of constructions of cars and things like that with if a car's needed for the media or the things like that.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_08: A lot of a lot of great other graphics work rather than just faces.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_08: A lot of the uh police logos, the all the different unit logos.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_08: I've probably done the majority of those as well.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_10: So wow.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_08: Didn't know that.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_08: Yeah, um the police medal, I did that.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_08: Yeah, and uh commissioner's medal, I think I did that.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_10: Wow, there you go.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_07: I had no idea.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_07: That is incredible, mate.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_07: Um you're only you're a couple of weeks away from retiring, um, and you've had pretty pretty stellar career, you know, very highly regarded within the agency.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_07: Uh any sort of you know, reflections, words of wisdom, anything like that?
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_08: Um it sounds corny, but uh if you find a job that you love, you'll never work a day in your life.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_08: I did that's awesome.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_07: Yeah, that's pretty cool.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_07: Um is there anything in terms of you know, I know there's so many jobs that you've worked on over the years, is there anything else that stands out as a particularly funny, sad, good job for you?
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_07: Stuff you'd sort of you know, pull out at the barbecue?
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_08: Um probably this is even before I got into forensics, but I was at Midland Anti-Theft Squad.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_08: And all the people I worked with there was a great team.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_08: But my partner at the time was Deputy Commissioner Kylie Whitley.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_08: No way, that's our current Deputy Commissioner.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_08: Another another guy that worked there, um, Commander Alan Morton.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_07: Al Morton is now an assistant commissioner.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_08: Oh, assistant commissioner, sorry.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_07: Yeah, acting, acting, I think, acting assistant commissioner.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_08: Plus Commander Mike Peters.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_08: Uh-huh.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_08: He was in the unit.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_08: Jeez, an all-star unit.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_08: All these all-star unit.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_08: Look at me, I'm the I'm just uh the old sergeant.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_07: I don't know about that.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_07: Um, I I think we'll we'll all draw our own conclusions about that if you uh if you will.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_07: Um Nate, uh can you draw?
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_10: No, no, I can't.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_10: No.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_10: I could probably do an engineering drawing, um, but that's uh yeah, straight lines and uh scale rulers.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_07: So if you are an aspiring artist, is there a place for you in the police force potentially?
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_07: Well, there's gonna be a spot coming up very soon.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_07: Yeah, there you go.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_10: And if you are thinking about it, yeah, jump on uh let's join forces and uh follow the prompts from there.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_10: We'd love to see your application.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_07: I'm just trying to think of a song that's like art related because we'd love to be able to play for the WA Police Pipe Band to play something for you that that is kind of you know something about is there a is there a Smith song called Can I Paint You a Picture?
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_07: Did I make that up?
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_07: Should I paint you a picture?
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_07: Oh that is that is a great and that is such a great song, too.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_07: Okay, that's Joe G as well.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_07: Joe G, our producer has just um he's just come through with the goods.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_07: We're gonna ask them to do it.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_07: This is Pictures of You by the Cure for the great Paul, our fantastic artist who's retiring.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_07: Thank you for your service, sir.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_07: And uh you're listening to Confidential.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_07: Well, they say it's a real jungle out there sometimes, and uh certainly an urban jungle.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_07: But this particular incident involved what I believe is probably a jungle animal, but here to talk about it is Constable Ryan Berger from Kennington Police Station.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_07: Ryan, thanks very much for coming on the podcast.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_07: No worries.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_07: Okay, so everyone in Perth's been talking about this because it did hit the media um recently.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_07: Two young blokes, 16 and 17, break into the Perth Zoo and specifically break into the crocodile enclosure.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_07: Everyone's heard about how they they have um then gone on to assault the crocodile.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_07: Animal cruelty.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_07: Okay, okay.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_07: What exactly did they or would we allege that they did?
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_09: That they were in the zoo at about 7.20 p.m.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_09: Uh which was captured on video camera footage.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_09: They have made their way to the freshwater crocodile enclosure where they've broken into two locks, uh, then entered into the enclosure, but we don't know what they've done in there because it's not recorded.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_09: But once they've left that enclosure, they've somehow managed to gain entry to the feeding platform of the saltwater crocodile enclosure.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_09: Oh my gosh.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_07: He was a big, he was a big boy, wasn't he?
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_09: Yeah, 4.5 meters apparently.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_09: It's slightly smaller than the previous one, but he's um apparently he's they only feed them twice a year and he's about ready for a feed.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_09: So yeah, they said they fed him in March, and he's supposed to be pretty hungry about now, so well, that's what we left.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_07: Did anybody check if either of these guys were Uber Eats drivers and uh the crocodile had access to a mobile phone?
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_07: Okay, no, in all seriousness, yeah.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_07: This was, and I have seen some of the CC TV, it almost looks as if one of them flashes their mobile phone as a torch over the edge of this feeding platform.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_07: And and it looks as if the crocodile actually rears out of the water.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_07: You see a disturbance and they they pull back rapidly.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_09: This is pretty dangerous, wasn't it?
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_09: To add to that, one of them then climbs down into the enclosure with the animal, less than half a meter away from it, uh, grabs a metal hook, and then starts beating it on the top of the head to the head causing superficial injuries to the head and neck.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_09: There's a few scrapes.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_09: It's a it's an apex predator with dragon plate armour on its head.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_09: Like it's not going to do much damage, but it's still not cool.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_09: It's still the intention there.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_09: Yeah.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_07: Oh, and if you hear that sound, it's just one of our wonderful officers going into the armory, which is also our podcast room.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_07: We've many times um uh on this podcast uh mentioned.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_10: You may hear a taser spark test shortly, so nothing to be concerned about.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_07: Nothing to be concerned about.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_07: It's just pretty cool that we get to see these guys coming in kidding up.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_07: Anyway, back to our back to our story at hand.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_09: So after yeah, after he finished after he finished whacking at the crocodile, he realized I I'm also being recorded down here, and he used the pole to try and destroy that camera as well.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_09: Um and then we followed them on CC TV footage.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_09: It was a real big effort from uh Nick from Perth Zoo and from uh first class first class Constable Waters, who was managing the CC TV from the scene.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_09: And uh they tracked them on staff bicycles and they went on a joyride around the zoo for about an hour.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_09: Okay.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_07: And then so from there, it was a very quick turnaround because you basically had to rest within 24 hours.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_09: Yeah, well, I as soon as we got the security footage, we couldn't tell from the enclosure footage because it was in uh night vision mode, but from the security footage, the second I saw the first juvenile space, I knew who he was because I've arrested him about 10 times myself in the Belmont area.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_09: Oh okay, so known to police.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_07: Yep.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_07: Oh help.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_09: Taser, taser, taser.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_07: There you go.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_09: So I uh I I knew who it was straight away.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_09: Um and our lovely Intel analyst noticed that in the footage one of the juveniles had a tattoo of a which was very quick, the query very quickly determined who he was and how he was linked to the other juvenile.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_07: Well, it just goes to show like that, you know, the capability, the knowledge, tech technical capability versus policing knowledge on the street.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_07: It's it's hard to get away with these things these days.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_07: Yeah, well, it's uh the crime scene is a crocodile enclosure.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_07: Yes.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_07: As part of investigating this case, did you have to go in there?
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_09: Yeah, yeah, we went we went up onto the feeding platform ourselves, but uh the zoo staff were kind enough as to remove the apex predator from the enclosure before sending the police in.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_09: Um we went up onto the platform, we looked to see where the cameras were stationed to get a best picture of how we were going to try and get a picture of their face.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_09: Um someone must have got peckish when they were up on the fleeting feeding platform because one of the juveniles had a iced coffee or a chocky milk, which d uh which our forensics were very quickly to attend and do a DNA swab on that, which I am sure will return a result imminently with one of the juveniles.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_10: It's a bit of a comedy of errors, really.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_10: It's a surprise they didn't get actually bitten by Oh, they were close.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_09: I'm surprised they're not dead.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_09: No, well, I I think it's purely because the zoo staff are so used to being around the animal that maybe it's more used to humans and being in a human enclosure than oh being in captivity than if they were to try and do this in the wild.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_09: I don't think that we would have known what had happened or been able to identify anyone if it happened in the wild because Taser is working up, yep.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_07: You're off uh on duty.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_07: Off to do some work.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_07: Thank you, Richard.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_07: Sorry to uh interrupt.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_07: No worries at all, mate.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_07: Thank you for your service, sir.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_09: Yeah, I think if this happened anywhere but in an enclosure where zoo staff has closely interacted with the animal, they probably wouldn't have walked away with all of their appendages attached.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_07: Oof, oof, that is um that is crazy.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_07: Um so I mean, cruelty to animals, I think, is pretty despicable.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_07: As you said, it's it probably doesn't it's a it is a crocodile, it's probably not, you know, um Yeah, it's a bit difficult.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_09: I think the wording of the act is cause unnecessary uh harm to an animal.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_09: And it's pretty pretty weird to say, well, yeah, they harm the animal, but you can see that it's got it's got clear scuff marks and injuries and and shallow cuts on it that they've had to they've had to keep monitoring.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_09: But um we pushed pretty hard to get the animal cruelty charge uh over the line.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_09: We we made sure that we called our sock detective sergeant tower, I believe, was the one who approved it, and um and it said yes it does fit, it does fit.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_09: The only defense they would have had is if they were trying to defend themselves, but the footage completely discounts that defense.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_07: Yeah, of course.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_07: Um I just think it's it's a bit despicable when you're harming something, yeah.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_07: Um and look, I know and say you're that they were harming uh you know a defenseless animal.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_07: I mean, that it definitely has defenses, but in this instance, it's just not cool.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_07: So the scales of justice potentially, yeah.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_07: Potentially, uh, yeah.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_09: You're the job, Brad, when we the the CAD job, we saw it come on the screen and it said they've damaged scales.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_09: And we are thinking, how a 16 and 17 year old managed to damage scales on a live crocodile?
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_09: Surely they meant like an exhibit where it's showing the public scales, only to find no, no, they meant that they damaged scales on the crocodile.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_09: And it, to my surprise, I looked at the incident report to see on the property list damages and scales reptile on the IO.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_09: Report.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_10: Well that's something you wouldn't come across so often for our property management.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_09: I do think the pack operator might have uh might have had a little chuckle there.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_09: That's police assistance centre.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_07: Um just curious.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_07: Kennington, it's a busy district, very dynamic.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_07: Um, and I know uh I know a lot of young young younger police officers who really enjoy it because of that, because there's always something interesting going on.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_07: Um you had a police pursuit the other day, didn't you?
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_09: Yeah, yeah, yesterday.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_09: Um, you know, uh acting sergeant Lynch was my driver and um and first class Constable Webster was the passenger.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_09: I was in a privileged position where I got to observe from the back seat.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_09: I didn't have to stress too much, and I tell you, I don't think I would have remained as calm as they did in that situation.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_07: It was my first one start to finish, but what did you what was this just a failure of the stop or was it no?
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_09: No, um it was uh so we and Armadale District Raw had been looking for this car because it was linked to a burglary and commit steel motor vehicle, and it had pinged an ANPR camera on Fairbrother Street in Belmont.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_09: And uh, you know, Andre and and Alex, Alex again, Alex seems to pop up in all these stories, he seems to get himself involved, but he's always doing the right thing.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_09: He they managed to find this car uh on Fairbrother Street, and luckily Andre had the correct class and qualification to to initiate the chase.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_09: And when when the car failed to pull over, then my offsider Chad Lynch took over, and then when an ERD qualified driver came in, they took over, and it led all the way from Belmont up to Gosnalls Road, where funnily enough, the driver of the vehicle was who we'd been looking for all day anyway.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_09: Oh, yeah.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_09: For another matter.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_09: For five other matters, he was wanted.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_09: Five other matters.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_09: He was wanted for five burglary charges, and and uh I tell you what, the IOs were pretty pleased that they didn't have to chase this guy.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_09: Investigative officer.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_07: Yeah, am I right?
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_10: Yeah, that coincidentally I actually wrote the lines to that this morning for media and um yeah, around 10 charges for that individual.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_10: Yeah, bail refused in court this morning.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_10: Yeah, uh, two passengers as well.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_10: They didn't go home empty-handed, no, also charged with uh swag of offences, too.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_10: So great result by Cannington.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_07: So crocodiles to car chasers, I mean it's all happening in Cannington.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_09: I drive I drive an hour to get to work and an hour to get home just so I can work in Cannington district because I enjoy it that much.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_09: I'm out of tenure by six months and I don't see myself moving anytime soon.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_09: It's well worth the well worth the commute.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_07: Oh, we love that.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_07: Um just you mentioned um when we were jading before we started recording um what I would imagine would be one of the most disturbing calls that you could ever get down in Mandra.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_07: Yeah, Mandra, yeah.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_07: Um what was what was that job?
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_09: Uh I was I was back on the inquiry team at Belmont and I um I was doing an arrest attempt for one of my files in in Mandra with uh with police constable Dobson, one of my good friends.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_09: Um and uh we we organise a rendezvous point with Rog.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_09: As as we go and do the arrest attempt, a job comes in saying, Um, hey, I've just broken into this home and I'm killed the occupants and I've started to eat their bodies, and then we're like, okay, well, maybe we should send the guys with the big guns in first and we will go in after and do the investigation.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_09: Luckily it was all a false report.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_07: I just want to say thank you very much.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_07: But to you and all of your colleagues, I think it was really nice how you you kind of you know shared around that love because the and the and the credit, because it is a big team, it's a big blue family.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_09: Well, I kind of I kind of feel like I saw the job come on the screen and I said, There is no way I could live with myself seeing a job for this at the Perth Zoo and not go.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_09: This is a once-in-a-lifetime, I've got to go, I've got to get in the middle of it.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_09: Unlucky for my colleagues, they were all tied up with very uh resource-intense jobs that take time and energy and effort, and I just got lucky at the right place at the right time, I think.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_07: The jaws of justice are swift in uh in Cannington, that's for sure.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_07: Uh, thank you very much, Commissioner.
• 25:51
  unknown: Cool.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_07: I should call him back, I think.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_07: Oh no, you did not.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_07: Hey guys, uh the uh the commissioners just tried to call me, so I'm gonna have to pause the podcast for just a minute and call him back.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_09: I was about to say you did not hang up on the commissioner.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_07: Definitely not.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_07: Uh this is uh thank you very much for your service.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_07: Uh and uh this is confidential.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_10: You're listening to Confidential.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_10: In April last year, Perth motorists did a double take when they looked up and saw what appeared to be a real life Spider-Man dangling above the Kornana freeway.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_10: Traffic ground to a halt, emergency services flooded the scene, and one of Perth's busiest roads was brought to a standstill.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_10: What followed was a complex rescue operation that captured the attention of commuters across the city.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_10: Well, flash forward more than a year later, the case is now being finalized in court, and joining us to tell us more about it is police prosecutor Sergeant Jade Williams.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_10: Sarge, thanks for joining us.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_10: Thanks for having me.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_10: Spider-Man.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_10: You've prosecuted Spider-Man.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_05: I have, yeah, in the flesh.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_05: Wow.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_07: Okay, so hold on, hold on.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_07: I need to ask.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_07: Was it Peter Parker?
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_05: Unfortunately, no.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_05: No, it wasn't Peter Parker.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_05: No names, no names, no names are necessary.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_05: Okay.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_05: It was not Peter Parker.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_07: Okay, all right.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_07: So this was a protest.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_07: We don't want to probably go into the reasons why to give it oxygen, but it was was that along the short.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, it was a protest, and he wanted to, you know, bring attention to his cause, so he'd hung up a couple of signs on the uh footbridge over Mitchell Freeway during peak hour.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_07: Okay.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_05: Yes.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_07: I mean, it definitely got attention, but Spider-Man?
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_05: He was dressed up as Spider-Man.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_05: He was a full Spider-Man outfit.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_05: He had sneakers on though, and he'd strung himself, or he'd sort of suspended himself underneath the footbridge.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_05: And he'd slipped.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_05: He'd slipped off his rope ladder and he was suspended.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_05: Yep, over the Mitchell Freeway.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_10: So no webs, just ropes, right?
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_05: Not even rope, a chain.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_05: So when he fell, there was no give.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_05: And he fell quite he fell quite hard.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_05: Oh.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_05: Oh, okay.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_05: And it was like a makeshift kind of harness.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_05: Yep.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_05: So it was he landed hard.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_05: And he said he he did say that he landed hard.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_07: Did did anyone just check, just make sure there was no Green Goblin or uh other sort of character involved here in his his supposed fall?
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_05: No, there was no Green Goblin.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_07: No, okay.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_05: No, none of that, none of that.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_05: It was just him on his own, wanting to bring, you know, bring attention to his cause, but unfortunately he uh he had a he had a slip and it didn't end well for him.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_07: Okay.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_07: So this is you know, fast forward as Nate said, 12 months.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_05: What what sort of um what sort of charges was he facing and did he fight them and was did he fight them in a legal sense or if they're any sort of you know uh radioactive spider, spidey sense kind of Yeah, but well he was only charged with endangered life, which it's a really serious offense and probably not quite fitted for this because he wasn't suspended so much over the the traffic, it was more over the the cycle path, the yeah, the footpath, cycle path, just maybe over onto the traffic.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_05: So it ended up becoming it went through our legal team, they were going, is it a trespass?
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_05: Do do we even have if it is a trespass, do we have authority to prosecute on behalf of main roads?
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_05: You know, so those sort of legal questions came up.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_05: But it ended up being a disorderly.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_05: This is what could and this is something that he ended up pleading guilty to.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_05: He said, I won't plead guilty to the end danger, but I will to the disorderly.
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_10: So I think it was a twelve hundred dollar fine.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_10: A hefty and embarrassing uh final outcome for him.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_10: Yes.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_05: Well, the the footage wasn't played in court.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_05: The magistrate said the the description was enough in the SMF.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_07: Any character witnesses?
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_07: Uh May, MJ, anyone on the board?
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_05: The references keep going.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_05: Just curious.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_07: I'm just curious.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_07: Um, none of that.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_05: It was just him.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_05: He showed up on his own armed with a a copy of the Constitution.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_07: Oh, okay.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_05: He had a sovereign citizen flavour, but not too much.
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_05: He just he but he pled to the disorderly, so we were all good.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_10: The basis of his argument wasn't it it's the vibe.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_05: There's a no.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_05: He uh he is um he identifies a Spider-Man.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_07: Does he really though?
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_07: Or are we trapped in a web of lies, as they say?
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_07: Um just keeps just keeps going.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_07: Now, in your your time uh in police, have have you come across anything quite like this before?
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_07: Are there any other characters from the Marvel or DC Universe or you know, historical, legendary, mythical characters that you've known?
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_05: Not one like Spider-Man.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_05: He was suspended for almost an hour over the freeway before they had to.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_05: It was like two fire trucks, ambulance, police, main roads, closed down two lanes of the freeway, and then they had to get the cherry picker from the fire truck to get him down.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_07: No, no sequel um is probably God no, I hope not.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_07: Yeah, no sequel for this one.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_05: Okay, especially for him.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_07: Yeah, I I my spidey senses say he's pretty lucky that he wasn't hurt.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_07: Um, you know, it was probably not a very good idea, and he could have hurt himself or somebody else.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_07: That's right.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_07: Um, and you know, the the real superheroes here, the people that rescued him, and the people in maybe wearing a sort of a petrol blue shirt.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_05: Maybe everyone who attended did a great job.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_05: They were all his his safety and his health was you know at the forefront of everyone's minds there.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_05: So he was checked out and he was okay.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_07: Excellent.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_07: A little bit sore.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_07: What do you think about a a sort of skin-fitting um police uniform, um Nate?
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_10: I mean, aerodynamic, we'd be good in foot chases, but um I think yeah, we we wear enough gear and probably don't need it.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_07: I'm getting I'm getting some no's from both sides here.
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_07: Yeah, no, thank you.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_07: No, okay, we'll we'll leave it, keep your underwear on the inside and um maybe uh maybe consider um your career as a uh superhero.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_07: Um you could always join the police instead of hanging off a bridge.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_05: Yes, real life superheroes.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_07: If that sounds like you, uh go to Let's Join Forces.
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_07: Excellent work.
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_07: Thank you so much to you, Jade, and everybody who was involved, um, and the great work that you guys do in prosecuting.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_07: Thank you very much.
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_07: This is confidential.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_00: All units, the WA police forces looking for people, all kinds of people, people in the tech, in the community, into formal driving, dog people, and horse people, people who like motor bikes and push bikes, planes, helicopters, and boats, people who are big on community, helping others and solving true common, not just watching it, you know.
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_00: Ordinary people who are up for doing extremely things.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_06: If you can be one of these people, you've found your people.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_06: So let's join forces.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_07: This is confidential.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_07: Well, we're gonna start this segment with uh with some audio from uh a body-worn camera worn by one of our police officers, and then have a listen to this.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_03: So it is positive.
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_03: Yep, so you can see there's a faint line there.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_03: So it is the secondary one, it is positive for methamphetamine.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_07: Okay.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_07: And here to tell us who or what that was today is senior constable Shane McNamara.
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_07: Shane, thanks very much for coming on.
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_07: No problem.
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_07: Thank you for having me.
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_07: Shane, you're with the road policing group.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_07: That's correct, yeah.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_07: Yep.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_07: Um what exactly were we listening to there?
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_04: What was the situation?
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_04: Um, so obviously we're part of the operational sentinel um that's ongoing at the moment with traffic.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_04: Um, it's basically been set up to target uh aggressive driving on freeways, highways, um pretty much everything that uh we normally do, but obviously the the focus is on that driver mentality and trying to address that, address the issues surrounding uh people who are basically abusing the freeways and highways.
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_04: Um being dangerous, causing grief for other drivers, that sort of thing.
• 34:23
  SPEAKER_04: This this operation is obviously aimed uh specifically at that.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_04: So it's been quite successful so far in terms of um what we've achieved.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_04: Um I think a lot of people are beginning to notice that we are on the freeways and highways.
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_04: Even more than usual.
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, even more than usual.
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_04: So it's definitely something that's um probably gonna come on stream a lot more.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, um, what about this particular one though?
• 34:46
  SPEAKER_04: What were we So this one um I think it uh came to our attention that the driver was was acting a bit erratic erratic.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_04: And it was a truck, wasn't it?
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_04: It was a truck, yeah, like a semi, semi-truck.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_04: Um but uh originally initially we thought he was on the phone speaking with somebody or speaking with somebody in the cab.
• 35:03
  SPEAKER_04: Um he was quite heightened.
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_04: Um was he swerving?
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, he was swerving along the road.
• 35:08
  SPEAKER_04: So we pulled up alongside of him, uh, looked inside, realized that there was no one else in the cab.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_04: So we're we're kind of our suspicions were raised, I suppose you'd say.
• 35:19
  SPEAKER_04: Um and he didn't really see us.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_04: Obviously, we're an unmarked vehicle, so we followed him for a period of time.
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_04: Uh his driving was was extremely erratic.
• 35:29
  SPEAKER_04: Um and his behavior basically his beh overall behaviour was a bit uh kind of suspicious in terms of he may be under the influence, he may be that maybe just the way he is.
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_07: But uh texting maybe while driving is possible.
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_04: Any any of any of those things.
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_04: Um I think actually he was on the phone at the time where he was touching his phone, so that's kind of another reason why we why we pulled him in.
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_04: So obviously following the the traffic stop, he was um breath tested, which was negative, and he was drug tested then by ourselves, um, which obviously gave a positive for methamphetamine.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_07: Oh we just heard him say it's negative, right?
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
• 36:07
  SPEAKER_07: Um positive.
• 36:09
  SPEAKER_07: So it was was I mean, uh was there an excuse given?
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_04: He was quite shocked at the fact that the uh he came positive for meth.
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_04: He admitted to smoking cannabis, um but it came back positive for both, I think.
• 36:21
  SPEAKER_04: Um so yeah, he and you know he works for a company.
• 36:27
  SPEAKER_04: We don't know if they're aware of that.
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_04: Yep.
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_04: Um it's quite a significant thing now in terms of uh do companies know uh what their drivers are are doing in their spare time?
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_04: Is there yeah, that's a good question.
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_07: So is the excuse that he was uh texting while on meth or that he was on myth and uh and uh actually he was texting.
• 36:49
  SPEAKER_07: Did did did he sort of attribute his behavior to one or the other?
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_04: I think he attributed it to the fact that he he was quite uh in denial of the fact that the meth bad.
• 36:59
  SPEAKER_04: So it was kind of more so that he was just texting it as well.
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_04: Wow, that's um well that's both are bad.
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_04: I mean he admitted to it probably both are bad.
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, he was oblivious to the fact that you know, if you're texting, yes, it's an offense if you're doing that while under the influence of meth.
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_04: Yes, equally as bad.
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_07: Holy moly.
• 37:18
  SPEAKER_07: So yeah, okay.
• 37:21
  SPEAKER_07: Simple mathematics or methemetics, if you will, would suggest that if you smoke meth and then drive, you are driving under the influence of meth.
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_07: Most definitely, yes.
• 37:29
  SPEAKER_07: Most definitely.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_10: Shane, we talk about uh the fatal five quite a lot in the media, um, and trying to educate the public and distracted driving is one of them.
• 37:39
  SPEAKER_10: How frequently are these kind of things occurring on our roads?
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_04: Almost pretty much every day.
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_04: Every day.
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_04: Shocking, isn't it?
• 37:47
  SPEAKER_04: Um yeah, and it's we've noticed a lot since starting this operation that it's it's extremely it's really bad.
• 37:56
  SPEAKER_04: Um but you know, we're we're we're obviously in a position where we're in an unmarked vehicle.
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_04: We can come up beside somebody, they're not aware we're there, um, and you're seeing people, you know, actively driving while putting on makeup, um, two hands off the wheel, drinking a coffee, um along with being on their phone, whatever else they're doing.
• 38:15
  SPEAKER_04: But the distracted part is is really already in attention, is really quite serious, and it's probably it leads to traffic accidents, traffic collisions, some fatal, some serious.
• 38:27
  SPEAKER_04: Um we've been to a lot of them as well.
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_04: Um so yeah, it's it's definitely something that Operation Sentinel is doing um quite effectively.
• 38:37
  SPEAKER_04: And it's definitely something that's you know, we're gonna be doing a lot more of in the future, I'd imagine.
• 38:42
  SPEAKER_07: We're gonna hear um a little bit more about what Operation Sentinel's doing in the coming weeks, and I suspect at some point we'll see some of those results in in the media too, because as Nate pointed out, we want to draw attention to the fact that these are effectively the basis of the fatal five.
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_07: These are why people are dying on our roads, and geez, I think there've been a lot of fatalities this year.
• 39:03
  SPEAKER_07: Like an uh one is too many, but uh it's huge.
• 39:06
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I've I've been to a lot, uh I've I've been to a lot of fatals since I came here.
• 39:11
  SPEAKER_04: Um not that I'm used to you don't really ever get used to it, but uh compared to Ireland where I'm from, it's uh it's really bad here.
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_07: What what do you reckon it is?
• 39:22
  SPEAKER_07: I mean because other people say this as well when I'm speaking to to mates who you know they're from other jurisdictions or other countries, it's just it doesn't happen to the to the level that that we see here in in Western Australia or in Australia should I say in general, just um people doing the wrong thing out roads.
• 39:39
  SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
• 39:39
  SPEAKER_07: What is it?
• 39:41
  SPEAKER_04: I mean there's a number of things you could say it is uh whether or not I can uh go into them without kind of um tipping the boat a bit.
• 39:51
  SPEAKER_04: Um but yeah, it's uh obviously there's a lot of uh people from uh other jurisdictions like myself, people that are not aren't aware of the road legislation, traffic, whatever it is, um their inability to dri to drive on bigger roads, larger roads, you know, a lot of a lot of that has an effect and obviously contributes to uh a lot of the traffic collisions that there that are you know people are involved in.
• 40:19
  SPEAKER_04: Um and then it's just general people's like that inattention, not looking at what they're doing.
• 40:25
  SPEAKER_04: Um and there's some simple collisions that can be avoided just by simply watching what you're doing and where you're going.
• 40:32
  SPEAKER_04: And not smoking myth.
• 40:32
  SPEAKER_04: And well, definitely not smoking meth, yeah, that's for sure.
• 40:35
  SPEAKER_10: Unreal.
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_10: Unreal.
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_10: Yeah.
• 40:37
  SPEAKER_10: It's uh I I did five years in traffic enforcement before it became road policing, and it's um yeah, it it baffles you to think that this still happens.
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_10: You can go out in a shift and you could get a whole swag of uh infringements for mobile phone users and you know the the the penalties are really high now, aren't they?
• 40:54
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
• 40:55
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, for like I mean and people don't realise I think how um obviously severe the penalty is um in terms of the the use of phones, but people are of the opinion that uh it's okay to use a phone if it's in a cradle, they can freely use it.
• 41:10
  SPEAKER_04: Um that's what we've even today, that's three or four of the same excuses.
• 41:14
  SPEAKER_04: I thought it was okay to have it in the cradle and still use it.
• 41:18
  SPEAKER_04: Um and then the same person is basically the light goes green, they're not watching what they're doing, they're waiting there, uh you know, all the rest of the cars have gone.
• 41:28
  SPEAKER_04: So again, inattention and simply because you're using your phone.
• 41:32
  SPEAKER_07: Mate, thank you so much for coming on.
• 41:33
  SPEAKER_07: And you know, public you know, we uh we often do have a bit of a joke on this podcast about people doing silly things like texting whilst under the influence of meth and cannabis.
• 41:43
  SPEAKER_07: Um, but the the end results can be really serious.
• 41:47
  SPEAKER_07: Um, and it's often first responders and families, obviously, of of those who maybe are unlucky and lose their lives that have to bear the brunt of that.
• 41:57
  SPEAKER_07: So we thank you very much to you and all of the guys at road policing who are out there in the rain and rain, hail, or shine, uh 24-7, uh keeping you know, trying our very best to to uh keep these people off our roads when they're doing the wrong thing.
• 42:12
  SPEAKER_07: We really appreciate it, mate.
• 42:13
  SPEAKER_04: No, thank you for having me on.
• 42:14
  SPEAKER_04: Appreciate it.
• 42:15
  SPEAKER_04: This is confidential.
• 42:20
  SPEAKER_10: Well, it's time for it's probably bad news, and we're joined once again by our beloved colleague, Claire Sienta.
• 42:26
  SPEAKER_10: Claire.
• 42:27
  SPEAKER_07: Claire, is it bad?
• 42:29
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, there's there's a bit of bad, but there's also a bit of good.
• 42:33
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, cool.
• 42:34
  SPEAKER_01: So we've got a balance this week.
• 42:36
  SPEAKER_07: Nice.
• 42:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um, we'll start off with uh the Hamilton Hill shooting incident that happened on Sunday.
• 42:42
  SPEAKER_07: Definitely bad.
• 42:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, definitely bad.
• 42:44
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but we have some more details around that shooting.
• 42:47
  SPEAKER_01: But it's good.
• 42:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, which is great.
• 42:49
  SPEAKER_01: So um the victim has been released from hospital, which is good news.
• 42:54
  SPEAKER_07: Also good.
• 42:54
  SPEAKER_01: Um there was a search warrant executed in Averley on Monday, and a person was taken into custody.
• 43:01
  SPEAKER_01: They were released without charge, but you know, a number of people have been interviewed, and the police investigation is very much underway.
• 43:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um police are pretty confident that they've identified some people involved and established their movements during that period.
• 43:15
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, detectives are doing a great job there.
• 43:19
  SPEAKER_01: And um, they believe it's also linked to a disturbance which occurred on the Friday, so two days before the shooting.
• 43:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um so they're appealing for any witnesses for that incident as well to come forward.
• 43:30
  SPEAKER_01: We've also, you may have seen some vision floating around of a child, a three-year-old child behind the wheel of a car sitting on their the parents' lap.
• 43:42
  SPEAKER_07: Good or bird?
• 43:43
  SPEAKER_07: Bad.
• 43:43
  SPEAKER_07: Uh bad.
• 43:44
  SPEAKER_07: Really bad.
• 43:45
  SPEAKER_07: Yeah, bad.
• 43:46
  SPEAKER_01: Um 30-year-old man has been charged with reckless driving.
• 43:51
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so if you didn't see that footage, uh yeah, it was pretty, pretty confronting that one.
• 43:57
  SPEAKER_10: Put it all over social media, too.
• 43:59
  SPEAKER_10: I mean, that is just It's a bit silly.
• 44:01
  SPEAKER_10: Yeah.
• 44:01
  SPEAKER_07: Um yeah.
• 44:04
  SPEAKER_07: I d does it I mean, yeah, it it it it is very silly.
• 44:09
  SPEAKER_07: I I think on the major freeway in particular.
• 44:11
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, and I think also uh, you know, we we see so much bad stuff that happens on the roads.
• 44:16
  SPEAKER_01: So doing something like that's probably not the smartest move.
• 44:20
  SPEAKER_01: Um and the last thing that I have for you, you you may remember a couple of years ago there was an influencer who um was caught up in in a murder charge.
• 44:31
  SPEAKER_07: Andre Robello?
• 44:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, Andre Robello.
• 44:34
  SPEAKER_01: He was planning to appeal that decision, um, but that appeal has been withdrawn.
• 44:40
  SPEAKER_07: Okay, all right.
• 44:41
  SPEAKER_07: Well, we'll watch this space.
• 44:42
  SPEAKER_07: Um he was convicted of murdering his mother uh to claim I think it was an insurance payout to fund his lavish lifestyle online.
• 44:53
  SPEAKER_07: Um honestly that's bad.
• 44:56
  SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
• 44:57
  SPEAKER_07: But uh mums are the best, not cool.
• 44:59
  SPEAKER_07: Yes, yes.
• 45:00
  SPEAKER_07: Also, murder, bad.
• 45:02
  SPEAKER_07: Very bad.
• 45:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, probably on the top scale of bad, really.
• 45:05
  SPEAKER_07: Right up there.
• 45:06
  SPEAKER_07: Yeah, yeah.
• 45:08
  SPEAKER_07: Is that it?
• 45:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's all I've got for you.
• 45:09
  SPEAKER_07: I mean, it was a balance, thank you.
• 45:11
  SPEAKER_01: It was a balance, yeah.
• 45:12
  SPEAKER_01: We I tried my best.
• 45:13
  SPEAKER_07: Thanks, Claire.
• 45:14
  SPEAKER_07: This is confidential.
• 45:16
  SPEAKER_07: Okay, thank you very much for listening to another episode of Confidential.
• 45:20
  SPEAKER_07: Um, a couple of things really quickly.
• 45:23
  SPEAKER_07: There is a um urban legend, if you will, within the agency that there is a police officer, a West Australian police officer, serving with one leg.
• 45:32
  SPEAKER_07: A one-legged police officer who so he's got a bionic type leg.
• 45:37
  SPEAKER_07: I do not know if someone is pulling my leg or if this is actually the case.
• 45:41
  SPEAKER_07: If you or anyone you know knows of this officer, please can you come forward?
• 45:46
  SPEAKER_07: We would love to have you on the podcast.
• 45:48
  SPEAKER_07: What a cool story.
• 45:49
  SPEAKER_10: Yeah, definitely.
• 45:50
  SPEAKER_10: I think we'll make some inquiries with our uh human resources people too to see how to attract them down.
• 45:54
  SPEAKER_07: I don't think they're allowed to tell us.
• 45:55
  SPEAKER_07: I think that's part of the, you know, I think yeah.
• 45:57
  SPEAKER_07: Okay.
• 45:58
  SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
• 45:58
  SPEAKER_07: HR.
• 45:59
  SPEAKER_07: We're going out on a limb here.
• 46:00
  SPEAKER_07: It's confidential, like this, like this podcast.
• 46:02
  SPEAKER_07: Um, very good note.
• 46:04
  SPEAKER_07: Uh, history fact of the week.
• 46:05
  SPEAKER_07: What do we got?
• 46:06
  SPEAKER_10: Yeah, uh, so look, National Police Remembrance Day is coming up on the 29th of this month.
• 46:11
  SPEAKER_10: So in this week, we'll look at the remarkable public response to the murder of Constable Noel Isles in Feb 1963.
• 46:19
  SPEAKER_10: Okay.
• 46:20
  SPEAKER_10: Constable Isles was shot in cold blood while investigating a domestic dispute at home in Belmont.
• 46:26
  SPEAKER_10: This was a time of high public anxiety, Joey, where Perth serial killer, notorious serial killer Eric Edgar Cook, was still at large.
• 46:36
  SPEAKER_10: So when a serving young police officer was shot dead in a suburban front yard on a Saturday morning, you could imagine how desperate the community was to find this killer.
• 46:44
  SPEAKER_07: Well, but people were rattled because there'd been so many not just deaths, but also attempted um murders as well, um, that it that had happened during this time period.
• 46:54
  SPEAKER_10: Turns out it wasn't Cook.
• 46:56
  SPEAKER_10: Uh the gunman was 23-year-old Brian William Robinson.
• 46:59
  SPEAKER_10: He fled the house and then shot dead a civilian in a gogo mobile that he tried to commandeer.
• 47:06
  SPEAKER_10: Hmm.
• 47:07
  SPEAKER_07: Okay.
• 47:08
  SPEAKER_10: Yeah.
• 47:09
  SPEAKER_10: Um Robinson then hijacked a taxi and forced the cabbie to drive him to the Nangara Pine Plantation.
• 47:16
  SPEAKER_07: Wait a minute.
• 47:18
  SPEAKER_07: Was this the manhunt?
• 47:20
  SPEAKER_10: Yeah.
• 47:21
  SPEAKER_07: The manhunt is this the one where everybody Okay, so the story is this is the story.
• 47:28
  SPEAKER_07: Basically what happened back then, and it still happens a little bit now in Western Australia, we we we're a huge jurisdiction.
• 47:35
  SPEAKER_07: Communications is a challenge.
• 47:37
  SPEAKER_07: We're getting over it these days with things like Starlink and and and other uh low earth orbit satellite um capability.
• 47:44
  SPEAKER_07: But back then we had um a very new TV station, which was the precursor to Channel 7 here in Perth.
• 47:53
  SPEAKER_07: It was the first uh TV station in the state.
• 47:56
  SPEAKER_07: And at the time, I guess our our predecessors at police media contacted 7 and said, We need you to put out a broadcast to say that that all police officers with guns, any police officers with guns who are armed, can descend on the Nangara Pine Plantation to help um with this manhunt to apprehend this this killer who killed a police officer and a civilian.
• 48:23
  SPEAKER_07: The problem was that, and yeah, and uh journos, sometimes in the communication, sometimes things get lost.
• 48:31
  SPEAKER_07: The broadcast that went out to the community was not that all armed police that anyone, anyone who's a police officer who's armed goes to Nangara.
• 48:39
  SPEAKER_07: It was that anyone in the community who is armed descend upon Nangara for the police hunt, which is what turned into, we believe, we still believe, the biggest manhunt that's ever actually taken place in the world.
• 48:57
  SPEAKER_07: I think there was something like 3,000 armed civilians and police officers hunting this guy through the Nangara Pine Plantation.
• 49:08
  SPEAKER_07: How did it turn out, Nate?
• 49:09
  SPEAKER_10: Um, it doesn't have the exact figures, Joey, but um it does say, yeah, look uh the public posse um uh managed to come across Robinson in the Pines, um, where he panicked and ran straight towards the police line, refusing to drop his gun.
• 49:25
  SPEAKER_10: Uh, and then uh yeah, Officer Bob Masters acted quickly and shot Robinson uh before many other people could get in the way and become placed in danger themselves.
• 49:36
  SPEAKER_10: Um he was taken into custody.
• 49:38
  SPEAKER_10: Yeah, he became the second last man hung at Fremantle Jail in January 1964.
• 49:44
  SPEAKER_07: The last being Eric Edgar Cook, the the night nightcrawler, as they say, uh who um uh murdered several people here in in Perth during that same period.
• 49:57
  SPEAKER_07: Now I have one last fun fact for you.
• 50:00
  SPEAKER_07: There was a young bloke by the name of Kerry Stokes.
• 50:04
  SPEAKER_10: You may know him, Channel 7 executive.
• 50:06
  SPEAKER_07: Well, he is the the longtime chairman, owner, um very successful and respected businessman here in Western Australia as well.
• 50:15
  SPEAKER_07: A young Kerry Stokes was one of the thousands of of West Australian civilians who got his rifle and responded to that call for help.
• 50:26
  SPEAKER_10: Wow, yeah.
• 50:28
  SPEAKER_10: I think Perth being such a small community, everyone loves to help out, don't they?
• 50:31
  SPEAKER_07: They do, and this was very Western Australia was very cool.
• 50:36
  SPEAKER_10: Let's all just be armed and head down to the pines and go for a man hunt.
• 50:45
  SPEAKER_10: Yeah.
• 50:46
  SPEAKER_10: Um the next week we'll look at how the police again use the media to help catch notorious night killer, Eric A.
• 50:54
  SPEAKER_10: Cook.
• 50:55
  SPEAKER_07: Okay.
• 50:55
  SPEAKER_07: Thanks very much for listening.
• 50:56
  SPEAKER_07: This is WA Police Confidential.
• 51:39
  SPEAKER_01: Sound editing by Joe and Danny and Sam, cover song by the WA Police Pipe Band, and cheesy podcast theme music by Joey Cantaro.
• 51:48
  SPEAKER_01: By the way, why just listen to a podcast about policing when you could actually be doing it?
• 51:53
  SPEAKER_01: Let's join forces.wa.gov.au