WHAT DO YOU THINK? SCROLL TO BELOW THIS STORY TO POST A COMMENT.DEALING with aggressive addicts, drunks, hoons and brawlers is all part of day to day life for members of Frankston Council's Street Watch team.
Releasing the first detailed figures for the four-member Street Watch team, a council report revealed the team attended 48 incidents from September 1 to November 24 last year.
While team members reported that a police presence would have been desirable on 20 occasions, police did not attend.
A council spokesman said this was because although in some circumstances it would have been ideal for police to attend, they had not always been requested when an event was quickly resolved and there was no opportunity to request police assistance. He said police had attended every time they were called.
During the quarter, the Street Watch team issued three infringement notices and attempted to issue a further four but were unsuccessful, mainly because those breaking the law refused to identify themselves.
The team was mostly called by traders in Young and Wells streets and by Bayside shopping centre security to deal with groups of people swearing and drinking.
Other incidents included a boy threatening to assault a female shopkeeper. A drunken man was taken into police custody after sitting in a Wells Street shop and refusing to leave and Street Watch removed a drunk woman from Frankston library.
In September, an alcohol-affected woman was arrested for being "passed out in the Keys Street toilets in a locked cubicle," and was also spoken to by Street Watch officers the next day.
"She appeared to be setting up for the day in the toilet cubicle. [The] Street Watch team advised her that she was not allowed to spend the day drinking in the toilets. She left the area after a lengthy discussion," a team member wrote.
On the same day, the team was again called to the toilets because a man was behaving suspiciously.
The team spotted a male and female leaving the baby change area and "checked the area and found debris in relation to IV drug use". On October 4, four drunken men were ejected from the Keys Street toilets for being "unruly".
The Street Watch team also broke up fights and arguments in Young Street, Ross Smith Avenue West and Wells Street.
They were randomly abused on more than one occasion and four people behaved abusively or aggressively towards team members when they were enforcing the council's outdoor smoking ban.
One Street Watch officer reported that on October 5 a man was asked to stop smoking in Station Mall.
"He became very abusive and threatened to put a knife into the team member," the report stated. Homeless people, buskers and those with mental health problems also featured heavily in the report.
The team received a call from local laws officers because a man was living in a trailer in the Olivers Hill car park.
When the team cut off his power supply and told him to leave, he allegedly used offensive language and said he "was staying put and would have us arrested if his property was touched".
On September 5, the team was called because a woman was living in an abandoned car on Beach Street.
It was later discovered she was an escapee from a New South Wales mental institution and she was arrested.
The Street Watch program costs $350,000 each year, including the team's vehicle.
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