From the presser with Officer Russell Barrett
- On Friday 12/9 Victoria Police conducted the largest ever tactical policing in Australia's history
- The Special Operations group , together with all equivalents from all states & territories & New Zealand, infact over 125 specialist tactical members , scoured / searched an area in the immediate vicinity of Freeman's location, this included incredibly rugged area, they were crawling thru caves, they were traversing rivers & falls, they were searching plantations & gorges.
- Overall have searched 100's of properties , with & without warrant, searched abandoned structures, searched mine shafts, caves, huts .
- Resolve to find Freeman does not change
- Slight lift in travel warnings for the Porepunkah area, people can travel there
- Park remains closed
From some questions :
- Search requirements come from intelligence & is reviewed every day
- All New Zealand police have gone home
- Can't go into if any items of interest were found in Friday's search
Reporter : "In terms of the assistance you h=got from New Zealand Officers , was that just for tactical or was it ......."
Police Assistant Commissioner Russell Barrett : " It's unprecedented, you'll obviously see the images, if you haven't seen them already. The terrain is incredibly difficult. The danger in terms of what we are confronted with is incredibly difficult as well. We need our specialist , our most capable tactical operatives to undertake this search. We are looking for a person who is armed, dangerous, and has a history, a recent history of murdering two police officers. So this is not something we can do a line search, like we are looking for a missing person, which we often do, with SES, police etc. This is a really highly technical search that requires absolute specialist capabilities to undertake because of the dangers that are involved. To do that in a single effort , to enable us to clear a particularly large piece of rugged terrain required an extremely number of tactical operatives.
Reporter : Was it worth it? Did you find anything?
Police Assistant Commissioner Russell Barrett : It's absolutely worth it . It gives us confidence & clarity on a particular important search area. And gives us the ability to do it in a single like time, which than enables us to think about , what we can than say to the community & give us confidence about what our next steps will be.
Reporter : Has his family been forthcoming with assistance to police?
Police Assistant Commissioner Russell Barrett : I thin we have addressed that, we've spoken to his family, and we will continue to endeavor to get them to support us, but at this stage, um that's a matter for the Homicide squad to continue to work with them.
Reporter : Have they provided a statement at this stage?
Police Assistant Commissioner Russell Barrett : Well they've been interviewed.
Reporter : But not a statement?
Police Assistant Commissioner Russell Barrett : They've been interviewed.