Police shifts are being shuffled, officers reassigned, line searches conducted and tactical teams put on standby following a spate of incidents involving a homicide, stabbings, and aggravated property crime across the national capital over the past few weeks.
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Late on Thursday night, a stabbing incident in Gowrie ended in one man being transported to hospital with multiple stab wounds and a squad of heavily-armed tactical police being called in.
Police say these various crimes are unrelated. What won't be discussed publicly is the huge workload on the ACT's criminal investigations area, with general duties and intelligence officers being seconded across to provide much-needed support.
The latest spike in ACT crime comes as the territory eases its way out of COVID-19 restrictions.
In the past few months, teams of officers have been taken off the traditional "beats" patrols, which walk the streets around Canberra's busy nightspots to mop up alcohol-related crime and anti-social activity, and reassigned to compliance duties to monitor those people held in self-imposed quarantine.
Now the reshuffle will start again, as the senior executive team tries to figure out how best to support criminal investigations without compromising other areas.
Southside, there was a fatal stabbing early on Sunday morning near the skate park at Weston, with an offender still not charged.
Officers have been door-knocking the immediate area to help piece together the events of that evening in which around a dozen people, some as young as 15, had been involved in a fight with fatal consequences for one young man.
But of equal concern to community policing officers is that a Glock service weapon, loaded with potentially up to 34 hollow-point bullets, is now in the hands of a thief who stole it from a federal agent's vehicle in Fraser on Wednesday.
Keeping your service weapon secure at all times, and observing strict protocols around its loading and unloading, is drilled into all recruits during training at the AFP College.
To have one of these easy-to-use pistols now out in the Canberra community, in unknown hands, is a troubling and fearful development for local police.
Here's some of the most recent and active criminal investigations under way:
Weston fatal stabbing
Police are door-knocking residents in the immediate vicinity of the Weston skatepark in the wake of the Sunday night/early Monday morning incident in which an 18-year-old man was fatally stabbed and a 16-year-old was hospitalised with stab wounds.
The attack occurred as up to 12 young people and young adults gathered in the area and a fight broke out.
On Friday, a line search was being conducted in Duffy, specifically around Eucumbene and Hindmarsh Drives by detectives, ACT Search and Rescue, and SES volunteers. The search is for the knife which was used in the fatal attack.
Clearly police have received information that the knife used was either tossed from a vehicle, or disposed of in that area. Securing that weapon and having it forensically examined would be a major step forward for the investigation, in which the offender involved is yet to be arrested.
Stolen police pistol
The stolen gun is a standard issue police Glock pistol, which was attached to a duty belt and almost certainly also included a spare clip of ammunition, handcuffs and capsicum stray.
The gun was stolen from a federal agent's vehicle in Fraser on Wednesday morning. Federal agent's weapons are usually kept secure in gun lockers at AFP headquarters in Barton so there will be some probing questions asked as to how and why the weapon and accoutrements were left sitting in a car in suburban Canberra.
Locating this missing firearm is an investigative priority which now falls to ACT Policing's crime team.
Multiple aggravated commercial burglaries
Over 30 smash-and-grab burglaries targeting commercial premises, many of them small retailers in suburban shopping centres and small Fyshwick-based businesses, all within a few weeks has also been a issue for the ACT crime team.
Some arrests have been made, including that of a 19-year-old man and a 15-year-old boy in connection with an aggravated burglary in Duffy on Saturday night.
But there is more than one group involved in this activity, and that investigation still has much to play out. CCTV vision reveals a variety of methodologies used by the offenders, including the use of a large, portable grinder to cut through doors and open up secured cabinets.
The brazenness of these robberies is concerning, which suggests offenders believe they can get in and get out again, grabbing what they can in a few minutes, and escape from the scene with impunity as the shop alarms blare.
It's the type of opportunistic, quick-hit crime in which arrests are aided by vigilant members of the community spotting suspicious behaviour at their local shops and being motivated to call police immediately.
Chisholm/Gowrie stabbing
Police are not releasing a lot of detail at this time but they were called to attend a stabbing in Gowrie about 8.50pm on Thursday.
One man was been transported to hospital with stab wounds and his condition remains unknown.
Two crime scenes were established, one at a Gowrie car park and another at the Chisholm BP service station, to where the injured man managed to drive after the incident.
