Crime-weary residents using tech to combat opportunistic street thieves

A Brisbane neighbourhood watch are waging a hi-tech war against drive-by thieves wreaking havoc across local suburbs.

They’re the drive-by thieves wreaking havoc across Brisbane’s suburbs, stealing what they can before fleeing to the next neighbourhood.

Hitting homes, cars and garages, groups of prowlers are quietly rolling into suburban streets under the cover of darkness.

Fed-up residents – part of a new techno-age neighbourhood watch – have set up on their own security cameras and are sharing images of the offenders in online community pages before passing on their details to police.

It comes as 2022 is shaping up to be a big year for stolen vehicle insurance claims, with RACQ figures revealing a spike in claims for the first three months of this year.

Residents are creating a techno-age neighbourhood watch to fight back against street crime.

In one video posted in a New Farm community forum, two men can be seen rummaging through cars parked in Clay St.

“I know this seems to be happening a lot lately but just thought I’d report it here in case you recognise this car or the perpetrators,” the woman wrote.

The Courier Mail is aware of another incident in Grange where residents took to WhatsApp to alert their neighbours about a suspicious group of youths breaking into cars, before chasing them out of the street.

Thieves are targeting Brisbane's ritziest suburbs.

One 38-year-old New Farm resident, who last month had someone “eat, sleep and steal” items from her car, told The Courier-Mail she felt like opportunistic street crime was getting worse.

“It’s alarming the lengths people are going to commit these crimes,” the woman said.

“I have lived mostly around New Farm and West End for 25 years and it just seems like it’s getting worse. But it may also sound like it has got worse because we hear about it through social media channels and we didn’t have that access to this readily available information 10 years ago.”

Over the past three years, Queenslanders have lodged more than 4,100 insurance claims for stolen vehicles with RACQ.

There has been 458 claims for stolen vehicles lodged with RACQ across the state between January and March – the highest figure for that period in the past three years.

“In the first three months of this year we’ve had more than 280 claims for stolen vehicles in the south east alone, which includes Brisbane, Ipswich, Logan, Moreton Bay and Redlands, the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast,” RACQ’s Kate Leonard-Jones said.

“Vehicle theft tends to occur more during the summer months, however during 2020/2021 summer, when there were COVID-19 restrictions in Queensland, we didn’t see as many claims.”

Ms Leonard-Jones said drivers should be careful of where they leave their keys and secure their vehicles.

“When you’re not at home, wherever possible, try to park in a secure car park,” she said.

“If that’s not available, choose somewhere well-lit and well-populated to reduce the temptation for opportunistic thieves.”

With residents increasingly using cameras and phones to record offences, Queensland Police has also found new ways to collect the high volumes of digital evidence.

In February, the service began using Axon Citizen – a new public evidence submission portal that allows law enforcement agencies to securely receive digital evidence.

Policelink Acting Superintendent Kevin Fitzgibbon said the technology had changed the way officers collect videos and photographs – freeing them up to spend more time on crime prevention and investigations.

“If you were to ring up and say my house was broken into and I have CCTV, we would send you a link and that uploads directly,” Supt Fitzgibbon said.

“It aids in two ways. Firstly police don't have to spend time going out and collecting the evidence … and they can use that to identify offenders and start the prosecution process.”

In its first six weeks, Axon Citizen helped Queensland Police collect more than 25,000 pieces of digital evidence.