Moreton Bay Regional Council’s cameras feed live information to police to help catch car thieves

REVEALED: A high-tech measure has been rolled out to botch plans of the car thieves responsible for this notorious car crime region’s 100 vehicle thefts each week.

Close to 100 cars are reported stolen a week in the Moreton region and now the council is teaming up with police in a bid to catch the thieves.

Moreton Bay Regional Council has been trialling the use of licence plate number reading cameras in known car theft hotspots for the past 10 weeks.

The Moreton Police District has one of the highest rates of unlawful use of motor vehicle offences in southeast Queensland.

The district is also frequented by the likes of wannabe youth gangsters the Northside Gang — allegedly responsible for a string of break-ins and luxury car thefts.

Moreton Bay Regional Council will roll out 30 new licence plate reader cameras in a bid to help police find car thieves.

In the past two years 506 unlawful use offences were recorded in Caboolture, 140 in Redcliffe, 140 in Deception Bay and Murrumba Downs recorded 248.

The cameras feed real time information to police on the location of the stolen vehicles.

Mayor Peter Flannery said the crackdown on criminals had proven to be an instant and overwhelming success in partnership with the Queensland Police Service.

“So far over the past 10 weeks, our cameras have helped identified more than 215 stolen vehicles to police,” Cr Flannery said.

“Each time a camera detects a vehicle on the list of stolen vehicles an automated email alert is shared immediately with local police and POLAIR, so we’re providing real time data to help police get real time results.

“So if you steal a car expect to be caught and go to court.

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“We’re the only local government in southeast Queensland area that has this capability of automated alerts at this time, and I expect others will soon follow suit.”

Cr Flannery said he was embarrassed that our region had one of the highest levels of vehicle theft in southeast Queensland.

By June the council plans to have another 30 detection cameras up and running across the region.

Moreton Bay Regional Council will roll out 30 new licence plate reader cameras in a bid to help police find car thieves.

Cameras will be installed in Clontarf, North Lakes, Margate, Wamuran and Woodford over the next two months.

Moreton Police District Superintendent John Hallam praised the valuable investigation tool, which is helping police apprehend offenders doing the wrong thing on our roads.

“This state-of-the-art camera technology is an important weapon in the local police arsenal not only to combat crime but also locate vehicles of interest,” Supt Hallam said.

Cr Flannery said it was great that council and the police could work together.

“Beyond the theft of property, these people are a danger on the streets and a nuisance in our communities,” he said.

“This program is a great example of how Council can work with other lead agencies to help prevent and reduce crime affecting our community.

“Our cameras are both fixed and mobile, with the flexibility to move them quickly to new locations, so there’s no such thing as a ‘safe route’ for offenders to commit these kinds of crimes.”