Fifteen men have been arrested in the ACT, and hundreds more in New South Wales, as part of cross-border family and domestic violence police operations.
ACT police's Operation Shepherd ran over five days last week to coincide with NSW Police's Operation Amarok, targeting family violence offenders.
ACT Policing Detective Superintendent Kylie Lawson said three people wanted by NSW Police were found living in Canberra, while one man was arrested in NSW and extradited to the territory.
"Working together, we were able to locate these men and arrest them," she said.
Police also seized two firearms, ammunition and drugs after arresting a 51-year-old man who was also served with a family violence order.
Another man was charged with multiple offences after allegedly assaulting his partner over several years.
On top of the 15 arrests, a further five men received summons to face the ACT Magistrates Court for family violence-related offences or breaches of orders and conditions.
Detective Superintendent Lawson said steps had also been taken during the operation to improve police responses to family violence.
"In the ACT, we have updated offenders' vehicle registration details so if they're stopped by police, for whatever reason, we can see that they have conditions not to contact their victim and ensure that there is no one else in the vehicle who is not supposed to be there," she said.
Detective Superintendent Lawson said the operations were an opportunity to put family violence offenders on notice.
"We take family violence seriously every day of the year, but operations such as these allow us to pool our resources and information and target those people who have evaded police detection," she said.
Hundreds of arrests across NSW
Operation Amarok also saw 732 arrests made across New South Wales and 1,589 charges laid over three days.
Police also conducted 1,497 bail compliance checks and 12,054 apprehended domestic violence order compliance checks, with a total of 546 breaches identified.
More than 100 firearms and 16 weapons were also seized.
NSW Police has conducted Operation Amarok more than a dozen times, and Superintendent Danielle Emerton said NSW was pleased to share its "operational blueprint" with ACT Policing and work closely to extradite offenders.
"Operations like this have shown that we take domestic family violence very seriously and the safety of the community is paramount," she said.
She warned domestic violence offenders that they "can't run and can't hide".
"The New South Wales Police and ACT are working collaboratively. We share intelligence. We share resources, and we will find you," she said.
'Can't hide behind borders'
ACT Police Minister Marisa Paterson said she expected more joint operations in the future, noting that police worked closely with their counterparts in other jurisdictions on a daily basis.
"I think it sends a really strong message to perpetrators of domestic and family violence that they can't hide behind borders," she said.
The ACT government is currently moving to strengthen domestic and family violence laws, with legislation to make coercive control a standalone offence before the Legislative Assembly. Coercive control is already a standalone offence in NSW.
Dr Paterson said Australia was having the "cultural reckoning" it needed to have.
"In this day and age, we have seen the public discourse around domestic family and sexual violence really develop in Australia," she said.
"This is a whole-of-community issue. This is a cultural issue. This is societal change that is required."
