Labor commits to $30m of bricks-and-mortar police beats
A re-elected Queensland Labor government would deliver 10 new permanent police beats across the state, including one at Mount Sheridan shopping centre.
Cairns
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A re-elected Queensland Labor government would deliver 10 new permanent police beats across the state, including one at Mount Sheridan shopping centre.
Premier Steven Miles today announced the $30m boost to frontline policing, if elected this month.
Each police beat would be staffed with two police officers and two police liaison/school support officers.
Cairns and the Far North would also receive an additional two mobile police beats as part of an earlier commitment to deliver 25 mobile police beats Queensland-wide, if Labor was re-elected.
Labor candidate for Mulgrave Richie Bates said residents in the southern suburbs of Cairns would welcome a new permanent police beat in the Mount Sheridan shopping centre.
“Police and co-responders in shopping centres reduces criminal and risky behaviour by troublesome youth,” he said.
“It also means everyone can go shopping and feel safe. It’s good for business.”
The pledge from Queensland Labor comes 12 years after Mulgrave MP Curtis Pitt called for the establishment of a police beat at the Mount Sheridan shopping centre, at a time when the LNP held power in Queensland.
Cairns MP Michael Healy said a new police helicopter operational in Cairns was helping to crackdown on crime.
“Now these extra mobile police beats in the Cairns region will add to the police arsenal of crime prevention,” he said.
The initiatives build on the state government’s $1.28bn Community Safety Plan for Queensland, targeting prevention, early intervention, and detention.
Already, the government delivers a targeted early intervention program in shopping centres intended to deliver a multi-agency response to de-escalate risky behaviours and promote positive inclusion of young people congregating in or around shopping centre precincts.
In recent years, Queensland Police Service has been reviewing the location and usefulness of police beats.
Live-in neighbourhood police beats like the ones in Holloways Beach and White Rock have been phased out by QPS in recent years.
In November 2022 QPS launched three mobile police beats for Cairns.
Premier Steven Miles said he would “always back evidence-based solutions that deliver results”.
“Queensland Police tell us they need more mobile police beats to keep our communities safe – so I’m delivering.”
According to the ALP, police statistics released this week show that between January and September 2024, there was a 6.3 per cent decline in juvenile offending and unlawful use of a motor vehicle offences actioned against youth declined by more than 10 per cent.
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