Southern Brisbane crime spree: 3000 residents in neighbourhood watch group

A 3000-strong group of residents in a Brisbane suburb are tracking crime and patrolling their own streets. SEE THE HOT SPOTS

Damion Douglass is the founder of the Rochedale South Neighbourhood Crime Watchers, Rochedale South. Picture: Liam Kidston

Fed-up residents of a southern Brisbane suburb have formed a 3000-strong group to track crime and patrol their streets after a spate of home invasions and robberies.

Rochedale South Neighbourhood Crime Watchers has grown exponentially after residents were menaced by balaclava-clad, machete-wielding thugs breaking into homes and scoping their streets.

The group was founded by Damion Douglass six months ago, and members now patrol their own streets and post live as crime is happening to warn their neighbours.

It comes as police continue to hunt for an armed gang linked to a series of robberies and property offences across Rochedale South, Carindale, Eagleby, Underwood and Manly West since Monday.

A balaclava-clad youth with a machete in a Rochedale South street

Members of group watched a series of terrifying events play out online, with members alerting each other via social media posts of hooded thugs carrying knives and breaking into homes.

With comments such as “lock your doors” and “such an unsettling feeling”, members alert each other to the movements of the group.

One recent video showed two hooded intruders holding a “scanner tool” that was used to unlock a four-wheel-drive and automatic garage door.

Mr Douglass said the series of incidents, including a police chase in Rochedale last October, led to the formation of the group.

“(We’re a) Bunch of mums and dads that got together to patrol, if the police can’t I will,” Mr Douglass said.

“We started a little ambitious and I put some resources and money and time into it, it deserved it.

“There was so much happening around that time, and the straw that broke the camel’s back was a young boy mugged on his way home.”

Southern Brisbane police district Acting Chief Superintendent Shane Holmes blasted the offending.

“These offences are abhorrent, we have zero tolerance for anyone who seeks to jeopardise community safety or their feeling of safety,” Acting Supt Holmes said.

“I want the community to know that we have police operations underway focused on locating and arresting this group and disrupting any further offences that put our communities at risk.”

Brenda Owen posted a man holding a fishing knife in her driveway on Tuesday at 6.30am.

“We were following them faster on Facebook feed than the cops. People were saying they’re now in Tarcoola street, now they’re in Welsley Court, now they’re in Wilmont Court and now at Underwood and now they are down in Slacks Creek,” Ms Owen said.

“It’s a little bit concerning that the police were lagging behind us.”

Ms Owen said it has been happening night after night after night, it just doesn’t stop across Brisbane.

“We are very sick of it … It’s just what Brisbane has become,” she said.

The group fled next-door, where a woman was home alone and called her husband after he had left minutes ago to drop their son at school.

“I was taking my son to school, we walked in the driveway at 6.23am and we left at 6.25am and my wife called me and said there were men in the back yard with knives,” he said.

The neighbour said his wife didn’t sleep much last night and had been stressed about the confrontation.

CCTV stills from an attempted break-in at an Underwood home

Mr Douglass said some members of the community are not able to afford the high tech surveillance cameras to protect their homes and called for a rebate to be offered to families.

Ben Dau, Le Carne Butchery owner said the constant battle for businesses having to pay for damages due to crime is “bull sh**t.”

“We have to pay for damages and insurance premiums go up and they just get away with it non stop,” Mr Dau said.

Mr Dau said it’s tough enough with meat prices going up and the crime wave adding further costs onto businesses.

Youth Justice Minister Laura Gerber staunchly defended Making Queensland Safer Laws when asked if armed offenders and a chain of break-ins in southern Brisbane suburbs indicated they were not working.

She urged for more time for these laws to make a difference in these suburbs, at the same time she announced expert legal panels who would advise on their expansion.

A social media post in the residents’ group

While not specifying how much more time was needed, Ms Gerber said increased sentencing was sinking in with youth locked away in detention centres, and this was making a difference.

She recognised more changes would be needed to resolve the issues within a generation of youth criminals.

Ms Gerber would not confirm if a gang targeting suburbs such as Rochedale were serious repeat offenders during an ongoing police investigation, but said they would face adult time and that the Queensland Government had been meeting its promises.

“We’ve been upfront with Queenslanders that it will take time for those laws to work through the system and take effect,” she said.

“We promised Queenslanders these laws would be law before Christmas, we delivered on that promise.

“We also promised Queenslanders that there would be further changes, that there would need to be other tranches, that Adult Crime, Adult Time would need more offences potentially added to it.

“And that is what we’re delivering today with the expert legal panel.”