Police are wearing camouflage to nab speeding motorcyclists in the Yarra Ranges. Officers in jungle greens have been hiding behind bushes to trap hoons racing along the winding roads.
The ranges are a favourite with motorbike racers, who post videos on YouTube. Sgt John Morgan, officer in charge of Operation Surreptitious, said it was difficult to police the region using regular tactics.
“The road is so narrow there’s nowhere a marked car can sit with the speed camera,” he said. “And if a police car takes a speed from an oncoming vehicle, the drivers know there’s not many places we can turn around and give pursuit.
“So there was an element of riders and drivers who really saw the area as a law-free zone.” Dozens of videos posted on YouTube show motorcyclists, with video cameras mounted on their instrument panels, clocking up to 170km/h in the Yarra Ranges.
One rider describes the Black Spur as “the best road in the world”, while others videos show motorbikes doing “monos” — riding with the front wheel raised — and overtaking cars in front of oncoming traffic.
Operation Surreptitious began in early March and the Yarra Ranges traffic management unit has already nabbed 26 speeding vehicles over nine days, including a motorbike clocked at 190km/h. Police have impounded eight motorbikes and one car.
One officer hides in the bushes taking traffic speeds with a laser speed gun, while a police car waits further down the road. “It may look a bit silly, but at the end of the day it means we’re catching motorists driving at extremely dangerous speeds,” Sgt Morgan said.
A police spokeswoman said Operation Surreptitious was the first of its kind in the state and was specifically designed for the Yarra Ranges area.
