Qld car thefts: Youth offenders ‘race’ for notoriety amid spike in stolen vehicles

A spike in the number of Queensland motor vehicles being stolen will result in “tragic consequences”, as young offenders “race” for notoriety on social media, a criminal psychologist warns.

A spike in the number of Queensland motor vehicles being stolen will result in more tragic consequences for innocent bystanders and Queensland police officers, as young offenders “race” for notoriety, a criminal psychologist warns.

Griffith Criminology Institute psychologist Jacqueline Drew said the “choice of crime” for many young offenders often involved car theft.

“For many of these young offenders it’s about notoriety – I guess it is reflective of what we are seeing in the online world more broadly, there seems to be this race to have the most likes and to have videos that go viral,” she said.

“Often with adult offenders you might find there’s unlawful use of a motor vehicle for the purposes of commissioning another crime but with young offenders it is more about a crime in and of itself.”

Queensland Police Detective Inspector Grant Ralston from the Youth Justice Unit and Crime and Intelligence Command said the Unlawful Use of Motor Vehicle offences appear to be the “offence of choice” for many young people.

It comes as new data from Queensland police shows there has been 13,697 Unlawful Use of Motor Vehicle offences reported so far in 2022 compared to the whole of 2021 (15,813), 2020 (15,027), 2019 (15,778) and 2018 (13,954).

But Det Insp Ralston said of the 13,697 offences for 2022, 6830 are unsolved, 5356 are solved and 1500 withdrawn.

“Out of the 5356 that were solved – the statistics show at this stage about 60 per cent are children and 40 per cent are adults,” he said.

Det Insp Ralston said the QPS has enacted a “multi-agency response” that is focused on about 400 “serious repeat offenders” among other cohorts. 

“QPS are heavily involved in the prevention and disruption space,” he said. 

“We have got 18 multi-agency panels with key partners – holistically addressing young persons but particularly the almost 400 youths across the state.”

Asked whether social media is having an impact on Unlawful Use of Motor Vehicle offences reported, Det Insp Ralston said from North Brisbane to the Gold Coast it appears many young offenders “steal vehicles in competition with friends and associates” and will often livestream those offences.

“In other parts of the state vehicles appear to be stolen to get from a to b or a to c.”

But Det Insp Ralston said social media posts are often used as evidence put before the court.

“We actually work closely with our social media platforms – we also engage with the e-safety commissioner to remove these posts as quickly as we can.”

“We will hopefully see some more positive results in the near to longer future.”

Dr Drew said when posting on social media, offenders would often try to hide their identity, using pseudonyms similar to graffiti tags.

“You see the same graffiti tag time and time again – that’s about putting a stamp on something and being known for a particular thing that you think is cool or attracts attention,” she said.

Det Insp Ralston said the QPS has enacted a “multi-agency response” that is focused on about 400 “serious repeat offenders” among other cohorts. Photo: Toa55/iStock

But Dr Drew said many young people fail to understand that a car is a lethal weapon.

“Trying to create the most outrageous video is increasing that risk-taking behaviour,” she said.

She said the erratic driving was even more dangerous than simply “speeding or hooning”.

“It’s two-fold – trying to apprehend these offenders is dangerous for the general community but also law enforcement, despite the fact we have very strict protocols around pursuits,” she said.

“The current protocol is around not exacerbating the danger to the public in trying to pursue offenders, but certainly it does raise a risk, also for police officers.

“We have seen police officers killed by deploying operational tools like road spikes – but different ways of stopping offenders need to be looked at in context.”

Dr Drew said it was important for the community to take a preventive approach and make sure their cars were locked at all times.