Independent report to Gold Coast Council reveals young people frightened to walk streets or take public transport after dark

A stunning report has revealed young people are more scared than older residents to take public transport or walk Gold Coast streets after dark amid spiralling drug use and violence. READ WHY THEY ARE SO SCARED

“Crackheads chasing you at night”. That’s the fear gripping young people on the Gold Coast according to a new report which reveals they are more afraid than older residents to venture onto trains, trams or city streets after dark.

The report, by independent consultants commissioned by council in the wake of disturbing findings in a ‘safety survey’ carried out last year, also revealed:

* Women of all ages do not feel safe walking alone on the Gold Coast at night.

* Surfers Paradise is seen as a crime “hot spot” due to “increased drug activity and alcohol use”.

* 18 to 29-year-olds feel less safe overall, particularly in “dodgy suburbs”.

* Residents over 60 years of age feel safer at night because they live in “gated communities”.

A youth told consultants: “The crackheads don’t like to sleep on my side of the block but on the other side. I’ve been chased and harassed a fair bit at night.”

Another youth told the interviewers: “I avoid using the train or tram at night due to feeling unsafe.”

The findings are backed up by statistics from the Queensland Police Service (QPS), which show that drug offences on the Gold Coast are up 82 per cent in just the last four years, while the rate of assaults has also soared to a rate described as “staggering” by frontline officers.

Gold Coast City Council is releasing a report updating on safety perceptions. It will be debated in Councillor Glenn Tozer's lifestyle committee.

Council is responding to the issues raised by doubling funding to more than $1 million on safety measures, while the city’s top cop, Chief Superintendent Craig Hanlon, claims police were dedicating “significant resources” to ensure people both “are safe and feel safe”.

Community leader Jenna Schroeder – an administrator of the Labrador 4215 Facebook group with almost 11,000 members – said the most common concerns raised in the community were suspicious behaviour, hooning and break-ins to cars and homes.

“In the past, there have also been concerns about discarded needles at Musgrave Park, Len Fox Park and other areas of the Broadwater,” she said.

Ms Schroeder said one of the biggest frustrations from residents was that while the council was taking some action, the City was not engaging with the community who were there on the ground and dealing with the issues every day.

“An example is the deployment of mobile CCTV cameras or ‘anti-hooning trailers’, which are being placed in the wrong locations, so haven’t been effective,” she said.

“The community has local knowledge about where issues with crime are actually happening, but the lack of consultation before decisions are made is obvious.”

Jenna Schroeder, a community leader in Labrador, is seeking better located CCTV to combat crime. Picture: Supplied.

Councillor Glenn Tozer, who is chairman of council’s Lifestyle Committee which released the report, said findings showing young people felt unsafe were partly a product of the media focus on youth crime issues.

“Some of the things that we can do is better communicate to young people and the broader population the work that is going on, that council is undertaking to help people feel more safe,” he said

Cr Tozer said the budget for safer communities would be lifted from $600,000 up to $1.2 million, with upgrades to be made to council’s safety camera network.

Cr Tozer said council acknowledged that safety was a high priority to residents and visitors, with the 2024 Safe City survey attracting more responses than any other City survey.

He said significant consultation had taken place with the community, internal stakeholders and external stakeholders such as QPS, which had informed is Community Safety Plan.

The four key focus areas for council would be increasing personal safety and security, creating safe spaces, enhancing perceptions of safety and reducing domestic and family violence.

The 2024 Safe City Survey set a target of 73.5 per cent for respondents who report feeling safe in their neighbourhood.

“This target was not reached, with results from the 2024 Survey indicating that 61 per cent of respondents feel safe in their neighbourhood. This is a shortfall of 12.5 per cent from the 2024 target and is an 11.7 per cent decrease when compared to the 2021 Safe City Survey,” officers said.

Police on patrol in Surfers Paradise – young people say they are concerned about their safety there. Picture: Glenn Hampson.

The most perceived safety concerns are robbery/break in (53 per cent of respondents identified this as a top safety concern), car theft (40 per cent), and anti-social behaviour (30 per cent). These concerns represent a shift from the 2021 Survey, where the top three safety concerns were drug use (48 per cent), hooning (39 per cent) and robbery (35 per cent).

“There are misconceptions on crime levels on the Gold Coast, with participants over-estimating the crime rate as significantly higher than the average for all cities and towns in Australia, which is inaccurate,” officers said.

But Queensland Police Service data shows that in 2024 crime across the Gold Coast remained at record highs, with more than 70,800 offences committed over the 12 months.

This was a five per cent increase on the 67,289 offences recorded in 2023, making it officially the worst year for crime across the city in at least two and a half decades.

Police sources said the number of assaults in 2024 was “staggering” – 5665 offences were recorded. That was the highest number in 24 years and an increase of almost 240 per cent from the 1672 assaults recorded in 2015.

On drug-related crime, officers on the beat say the numbers were “just as sobering” – 10,128 offences were recorded, a whopping 82 per cent increase in four years compared to the 5556 in 2021, and the largest annual total in close to a decade.

Chief Superintendent Craig Hanlon. Picture: Glenn Campbell.

Chief Superintendent Hanlon claims police on the Gold Coast had been deploying significant resources to ensure community safety, pointing to initiatives such as Jack’s Law – which allows police to search for knives – as helping to prevent serious incidents.

“We have ongoing operations. We started these operations when light rail merged to heavy rail, way before the Comm Games,” he said.

“Since then we have done operations specifically targeting in particular the light rail network, with the (introduction) of Jack’s law. We target all the transport hubs

“In Surfers Paradise, on a Friday and Saturday we have our dedicated police (working at) the Safe Night Precinct.”

He urged all residents, including young people, to report any incidents to police.

He said police were also aware of the results of council surveying and were “grateful” the city had given them an opportunity to put solutions forward.

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Originally published as Independent report to Gold Coast Council reveals young people frightened to walk streets or take public transport after dark