Police target high-risk offenders as Operation Martello tackles crime crisis
Queensland Police admit the youth crime crisis gripping the South Burnett is “bigger than we can deal with” as a week-long operation begins.
A targeted police operation to “disrupt crime” has kicked off in the South Burnett this week, just weeks after residents pleaded with local and state leaders to address the youth crime crisis impacting the region.
Operation Martello launched on December 8 and will run through to December 14, targeting high-risk offenders, drug and property crime and anti-social behaviour.
The operation will focus on known crime hotspots, with officers conducting patrols, vehicle stops, knife wanding and bail compliance checks, as well as engagement activities with residents and local business owners.
Tactical crime squads from across the Southern region have been engaged in the operation, including the state flying squad, officers from Murgon and Kingaroy Criminal Investigation Branch and Child Protection Investigation Unit, Darling Downs Highway Patrol units and general duties officers from Murgon and Kingaroy.
At a press conference in Toowoomba on Tuesday morning, Darling Downs District Officer Superintendent Doug McDonald said it was “disappointing” to see the spike in crime in the South Burnett and that “it’s a really challenging space to work in”, particularly when dealing with young offenders.
“ ... It’s a bigger issue than we can just deal with as police,” he said.
“It’s about everyone, including the community, our partner agencies, our non-government organisations, that need to be really active in this space to prevent the really troubling issue for us of young people entering the justice system.”
Superintendent McDonald said police were seeing a pattern of young people being influenced by older offenders who were being released from custody and coming back into the community.
Police are working with partner agencies, like Youth Justice and Child Safety, to attempt to prevent the manipulation of those young people before they become involved in serious criminal activity.
He said one of the most concerning aspects of the recent offending was the increase in young people being armed with bladed weapons, who go on to commit “serious” robberies and stealing motor vehicles.
“Often those vehicles are used for no real purpose other than committing other offences, and we often find a number of them burnt out,” he said.
Superintendent McDonald said residents in Murgon, Cherbourg and the wider South Burnett should be “confident” police were doing everything they could to keep people safe, and police were working “very hard” to put offenders behind bars.
According to Superintendent McDonald, there were already plans in place to send additional resources to the South Burnett before the recent community unrest, but the plans were “bolstered” as a consequence of the “community tension and concerns”.
“We’re very alive to the feelings within the community, hence why we’ve put an uplift in our resources into that area,” he said.
He said police took bail “very seriously”, and looked at a number of factors when deciding whether to grant offenders bail or to object to it before the court.
“It’s front of our mind that the community expects that these dangerous people will be kept off the street and my officers are very diligent in opposing bail when it’s warranted,” he said.
According to a Queensland Police Service spokesman, 86 people have been arrested and charged with 481 property and criminal charges between July 1 and November 24 this year.
There is no information available to indicate how many of those people were children, however Superintendent McDonald said the offenders are largely juveniles from the region.
Attorney-General and Member for Nanango Deb Frecklington said she was “fully aware of the significant issues” currently impacting the community and “the effect they are having on local families”.
She assured South Burnett residents that she was continuing to update the Premier, Police Minister and Youth Justice Minister on the situation.
Mayor Kathy Duff asked the public to report any concerns directly to the police.
“ … if you feel unsafe in your homes, if there’s any suspicious circumstances, the first port of call has to be the police,” she said in a video update posted on her Facebook page on Sunday, December 7.
“ … in the background, the honourable Deb Frecklington, the Premier, they are all aware of it and they are working as hard as they can to try and rectify the situation and to make this community safe.”
Police Minister Dan Purdie said the state government would continue to make sure police had all the resources they needed to do their job and “return community safety across Queensland”.
Superintendent McDonald said locals would see more police on the street right through the Christmas period.
