Lockdowns are not a new phenomenon in policing and they will continue to be used to target increasing crime rates in Launceston, Northern Commander Brett Smith says.
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Commander Smith said police lockdowns had been a successful strategy used in the North for the past five years.
Operation Orca has locked down Ravenswood, Mayfield and Cressy in a bid to crackdown on recidivist offenders, but the operations have come under fire by Civil Liberties Australia and the Australian Lawyers Alliance.
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Speaking on ABC radio, Civil Liberties Australia director Richard Griggs said he didn't think the lockdowns were legal but he didn't know for sure.
Commander Smith said the lockdowns were road safety operations carried out under the road safety legislation and he made no apology for cracking down on crime.
"It's not helpful for people to provide reliable and credible information who haven't done their research," Commander Smith said.
Police use the lockdown set-up to make it difficult for people to evade, minimising risk to officers and the community.
"A lot of planning goes into this. It's not a new phenomenon in policing," Commander Smith said.
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Australian Lawyers Alliance Tasmanian president Fabiano Cangelosi said the lockdowns were an abuse of power and unfairly targeted lower socio-economic suburbs.
"Each entry and exit point to the suburb is being barricaded and people entering or leaving are being randomly searched," Mr Cangelosi said.
Commander Smith said the lockdowns were not checkpoints and not every car was searched.
Random breath tests and registration checks are conducted, with police looking for any signs of illicit drugs, and only searching cars if they have reasonable grounds.
It takes most drivers less than a minute to get through the operation.
"It is not new news that we've had a number of spikes in crimes in the Northern district in the past few months and this is our response," Commander Smith said.
"In my 37 years of policing I can say very few people have walked into the police station to give themselves up."
The Ravenswood lockdown led to the arrest of a family violence offender who had been eluding police for some time.
Commander Smith said he was disappointed some people made ill-informed comments about a measured response taken by police to tackle increasing crime rates.
"We target particular people in particular areas, that's our approach to resolving crime," Commander Smith said.
Officers involved in all three operations said they had positive feedback from community members.
Commander Smith praised the efforts of officers involved in the operations.
"Our people do a wonderful job within their parameters and we are lucky to have a supportive community," he said.
