State and Territory police combine forces as Operation RAID gears up

ACT Policing is again joining forces with NSW Police, South Australia Police and Victoria Police in the nation's largest multi-jurisdictional police traffic campaign: Operation RAID (Remove All Impaired Drivers).

Launched today (November 22), Operation RAID is aimed at detecting and/or removing all alcohol and/or drug-impaired drivers from the roads of the four police jurisdictions in the vital period leading up to the busy Christmas-New Year holiday driving season.

At specific times during the three-week Operation RAID program, police will combine their efforts for border "lockdowns", in which all drivers and motorcycle riders travelling across state and territory borders will be subject to random breath tests.

Operation RAID is seen as a vital tool by police in all states and territories as a means of focusing the motoring public on safer driving practices and specifically to curb dangerous drink-driving in the lead-up to the festive season.

A 30-second television commercial has been produced featuring police from all four jurisdictions. The commercial will be aired on networks across all the states and territories involved over the next four weeks.

Superintendent Michael Chew, in charge of ACT Policing's Traffic Operations team, said that the slogan for this year's Operation RAID is "Nowhere to Hide".

"That slogan sums up the focussed approach by police in detecting those people who are impaired by alcohol or drugs and yet flaunt the law and endanger other road users by driving a car or riding a motorcycle," Supt Chew said.

"This operation combines the efforts of hundreds of traffic police across four states and territories. We are putting the motoring public on notice that if they choose to break the law, they will be caught. We won't say when and where, but we will be there, on those lonely country roads, at the borders, and in the cities and towns, to detect and apprehend those offenders."