Qld Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll admits citizens’ use of private security guards ‘has merit’

Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll has backed the hiring of private security to patrol Queensland’s streets, admitting it was a deterrent.

Police commissioner Katarina Carroll has said private security is a deterrent, days after she made her strongest endorsement yet of a growing trend.

On Sunday Ms Carroll said hiring private security guards to patrol streets was a deterrent and any deterrent people had was “excellent”.

“Security is definitely a deterrent, you know, and that’s why nightclubs hire securities,” she said.

“That’s why I use several 1000 of them during G20. So they partner heavily with police and work closely with police and certainly, you know, any deterrent that you have is excellent. “That’s also home security that’s working with neighbourhood watch.”

It comes after Ms Carroll declared the use of security guards by private citizens has merit as a lawful means to increase personal and property security.

Qld Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll. Picture: John Gass

The comments, made in a written statement, come after a string of stories revealing the increasing reliance of individuals and community groups on privately contracted guards as a means to combat exploding rates in neighbourhood-based break-ins.

The Courier-Mail revealed last month that neighbours were pooling money to pay up to $360 a day for private guards in Townsville, Brisbane and on the Gold Coast.

The written statement takes Ms Carroll’s support for the strategy further than her previous public remarks, in which she primarily focused on warning citizens that private security guards don’t have the same powers as police.

“If you want to engage in that, it really is up to the community but they don’t have the authority police do so you do have to as a community be very careful about making these choices,” Ms Carroll said in a press conference last month.

“They have the same powers as citizens do but they are the things you have to be extraordinarily mindful of when you make those decisions,” she said of private guards.

But asked last week whether it concerned police that communities were going to these measures to feel safe in their neighbourhoods, Ms Carroll’s assessment softened.

“The concept has merit as a lawful means to increase personal and property security, as is employed by many gated communities with full-time private security patrols,” she said.

Damien O'Keeffe, security supervisor from 24/7 Secure, which has been patrolling streets across a number of Brisbane suburbs. Picture: Richard Walker

Ms Carroll also reiterated previous statements about the guards lacking police powers.

“The hiring of private security providers either collectively, or individually, by residents is a commercial arrangement between those parties,” she said.

“Trained security providers generally understand the limitations of their authority and that includes understanding when to escalate a situation to the Queensland Police Service (QPS) for advice or assistance.”

In Brisbane, 12,712 unlawful entries were recorded from June 1, 2022, until June 1, 2023, up from 9,906 in the previous 12-month period.

Neighbours are routinely banding together in groups of between 20 and 30 people to finance the private security, fearful that police are not able to stem the break-ins.

Ms Carroll has repeatedly identified more traditional Neighbourhood Watch groups as an effective means to share information.