My first-hand experience of touring Brisbane’s Safe Night Precincts after dark

The Courier-Mail crime reporter Andreas Nicola spent a night touring the Fortitude Valley with police, this is the good, bad and the ugly of infamous precinct. WATCH THE VIDEO

Fights in the middle of the street, people in handcuffs, being caught with drugs, police wanding for knives and a surprising number of high-fives.

Welcome to a night out in Fortitude Valley.

Hundreds of people partying at clubs, letting loose, and the handful that the cops care about. The ones getting out of control.

I tagged along with North Brisbane District Superintendent Simon Tayler, walking in the city’s safe night precincts.

Let me tell you, walking down the street with a bunch of police officers on a Friday night is a very different experience than what I am used to.

Every five minutes we had a different person trying to hi-five us or say hi.

As someone who prefers their personal space, I realised I would not have the patience to be a police officer.

If it was me I would say “don’t touch me”.

But thankfully, they paid no attention to me.

We started the night at 11pm on a drive through the city, to Caxton St and ending at the Valley.

For three hours we walked up and down the streets, walking past places like the Tax Office, Honkey Tonks and the Met, patrolling and making sure everyone was behaving.

We saw people huddled on the road, some couldn’t walk straight, others were leaning over the kerb throwing up.

And one had fallen off an e-scooter and was in the middle of the road way.

After the first hour, it was pretty clear almost every section of the safe night precinct was covered by police walking up and down.

A man being detained after an alleged assault outside a Valley nightclub. Photo Steve Pohlner

Andreas Nicola with Supt Simon Taylor through the Valley. Photo Steve Pohlner

They had a strong presence and they couldn’t be missed with their bright vests.

Throughout the night, we saw multiple fights.

In one instance, we were sitting in the Fortitude Valley police beat, looking at Council’s city safe cameras and saw a fight break out near the venue Su Casa.

Multiple police officers got up so quickly and ran towards the fight.

I never realised how many City Safe Cameras there were.

- Police search a person after an alleged assault outside a Valley venue. Photo Steve Pohlner

But I also never realised how effective they were. Within five minutes the police were able to break it up.

An example of this was an incident filmed at the McDonald’s last month with the City Safe cameras picking it up, also showed police tackling the alleged offender to the ground.

Across all of the North Brisbane District Safe Night precincts the weekend we went there were more than 60 people charged with offences relating to assault, possessing drugs, wilful damage, public nuisance and drink driving.

- People recovering in the gutter on Ann St the Valley. Photo Steve Pohlner

And a number of other people being caught with drugs.

Statistics from the Brisbane CBD safe night precinct shows there has been a 30 per cent increase in reported offences.

But police say it is because of the ramped up level of officers patrolling since Jack’s law was implemented.

We saw many police officers conducting wanding. But what we also saw was police picking up some people who weren’t meant to be there.

Police detain a person after an alleged assault outside a club. Picture: Steve Pohlner

In the Fortitude Valley precinct there were 1044 banning notices issued in 2024. Several people in just the one night were caught for contravening the banning orders who were found on random checks.

In just three hours, it definitely opened my eyes.

I’ve been out in the Valley several times, but never like this.