From the office of ROLAND ROCCHICCIOLI

AFTER four years in Ballarat Inspector/Acting Superintendent Jason Templar has been transferred to Geelong. Ballarat has been well served by Templar’s tenure. His commitment and public availability has been exemplary. It was Inspector Templar who devised and implemented Operation Praesidium.When the Inspector arrived in Ballarat, Little Bridge Street was a veritable crucible of anti-social behaviour which had so bedevilled the shopping precinct — unabated — for nigh-on two decades. Shop owners were despairing of the recalcitrants and their bold lawlessness.

After meeting the inspector at a Justices’ of the Peace dinner where he and I were guest speakers, he invited me to bring together a team of committed Ballarat residents to join him in his determination to confront the challenges. Paula and Richard Nicholson, Marita Punshon, John Fitzgibbon, Brett Macdonald, and expert team leaders from the Ballarat City Council lent their support to achieve the result.

While it is impossible to eradicate antisocial behaviour — it is one of the international wicked problems tormenting modern society — Operation Praesidium has made a discernible difference to that city quarter. The reversing of the disastrous 1981 decision to convert Bridge Street into a pedestrian Mall has done much to disperse the wrongdoers. Police pressure to move along lessens offenders propensity to congregate and create fear.

The persistence of the inspector, his senior sergeants, and all Ballarat law enforcement officers has wrought lasting change. Through the efforts of Inspector Templar and Ballarat City CEO Evan King, the public transport routes passing through Little Bridge Street are being remodelled to meet public expectations.

My peripheral involvement with Ballarat police has demonstrated the need for communal policing involvement. For them to achieve optimum capability we must become their eyes and ears. The result is directly proportional to the assistance rendered. Collectively, there are more living their lives on the right side of the law than those who choose to flout the established protocols.

Exacerbated by its proximity to Melbourne, Ballarat’s crime rate is amplified by profoundly dangerous comments on social media — a Pandora’s box frequented by a surfeit of conspiratorial halfwits and functioning illiterates with a writing age of about 12 — and an alarming lack of regard and civility.

Between 13-15 percent of Australians avoid social media. In this world, “like meets with like”. The available platforms have brought together a like-minded zoo of the dull and the ignorant; handed them a megaphone to the world to conflate fact and fiction; to conspiratorially propagate an overwhelming volume of misinformation; and exposed a distressing paucity of intellectual acumen and language management.

Recent comments on the Ballarat Community Crime website are cause for the gravest concern. Ballarat local Mick Kay declared police are “lazy and disinterested” — which says more about the author’s asininity (from the Latin asinus — donkey) than it does about Ballarat police. The group allegations are so overwhelmingly absurd one is rendered incredulous. The malicious stream of illiterate consciousness has no basis in truth; axiomatically puerile; socially venomous; and feeds into a diatribe of discontentedness which serves only to destroy the fabric of an already delicate society. Good manners stop me from saying — “shut your ignorant mouth!”

In the interest of Ballarat it is hoped Inspector Templar will be rotated to substitute for Superintendent Troy Hargadon when opportunities presents. On behalf of Ballarat I say, “thank you, Inspector Templar”.

Roland talks with Brett Macdonald 3BA — Monday 10.40am.

Contact: [email protected]