ACT police 'stretched thin' during unexpected numbers of incidents in Civic

The Territory Targeting Team had to draw resources from elsewhere to cover the past two Sunday mornings, July 16 and July 23, following a spike in incidents, Sergeant Max Mokrij said.

He said police dealt with 24 separate incidents in one six-hour period between 12am and 6am on one of the mornings.

"There are unacceptable levels of violence and antisocial behaviour, because everyone should be able to go out and have a good time without fear," he said.

"Venues have important responsibilities in terms of responsible service of alcohol, but ultimately everybody needs to be responsible for making their own decisions in regards to how much they are going to drink and how they are going to look after each other.

"We were stretched thin, but we were able to manage by drawing on our resources across the ACT."

At around 1am on Sunday, July 16, police were required to use a Taser to detain a 20-year-old man who was involved in a fight on Lonsdale Street.

While dealing with the man, police were also called to a separate incident where a 16-year-old girl, who had used a fake ID to enter a nightclub, reported she had been allegedly sexually assaulted. Investigations are currently underway to identify the man, ACT Policing reported.

At 4am on the same night, a 19-year-old woman was arrested for assaulting her 25-year-old partner in Garema Place, while police also responded to an alleged one punch assault on the dance floor of London Circuit nightclub.

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The following Sunday morning, police dealt with three other incidents of alleged physical assault, which resulted in the arrests of three men, a 23-year-old woman and a 23-year-old man.

Sergeant Mokrij said all of the incidents could have been avoided with better substance consumption moderation.

"Targeting licensed premises is also always an area of focus for us, and working with them to make sure they know their obligations and that they're aware of how to implement them," he said.

"To people who think they're going to go out for a scrap over the weekend, they should think twice ... CCTV cameras are monitored and [police] are out in force every weekend.

"We don't want to be the fun police, but ideally, people should know their limits and look after each other so we don't have to be involved."

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