Gold Coast CCTV: What you need to know and the changes that are coming
There’s a huge change coming to the Gold Coast’s CCTV network which will have big implications for the safety of locals and tourists in the party precinct. FULL DETAILS >>>
Council
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MORE than $3 million will be spent expanding the Gold Coast’s CCTV network in the next year.
In the year’s first major budget announcement, Mayor Tom Tate said the city would pour funding into security camera technology, with Surfers Paradise receiving special focus.
The party precinct will receive at least 20 new cameras in a bid to clean up the area’s reputation.
Cr Tate said improving security was a key plank of the budget, which will be brought down on June 23.
“Safety is a key priority for residents and I hear it every year through the community budget survey,” he said.
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“We are again responding with this significant investment in new technology, particularly new mobile CCTV prototypes which use the latest technology, to better capture and deter anti-social behaviour in our suburbs.
“The benefit is that the imagery will be of the highest standard, to support our hardworking police. Presenting evidence from our cameras, through the courts, has helped successfully prosecute hundreds of offenders.’’
Council already spends more than $5 million annually on safety initiatives across the Coast and has 700 cameras in its network.
A report to council in February revealed the locations of 103 camera in Surfers Paradise with most of them on the foreshore and around the Orchid Avenue entertainment strip.
The research includes the revelation that Surfers Paradise is no worse for police incidents than Brisbane’s entertainment strip at Fortitude Valley.
But the report warns council that the precinct suffers from a negative image that could be made worse by the millions of tourists posting on social media.
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Following this council launched a Safe City Survey to obtain feedback on “what Gold Coasters perceive about safety in their neighbourhoods and the wider city”.
The response from residents will help shape future community safety programs.
Details about this year’s budget have remained tightly under wraps but Cr Tate said council would deliver a rates rise at, or below inflation.
“Since 2012, we have delivered a low-rates budget agenda and we plan to keep it that way despite the challenges of Covid-19,” he said.
“ Last financial year, we delivered a rates freeze as well as an actual rebate of $64 to around 138,000 ratepayers, to assist through the Covid challenges.’’
February 2021
CITY leaders want the state government to create Queensland’s largest CCTV network in a bid to get on top of the youth crime crisis.
They want thousands of security cameras in private homes and businesses to be incorporated into the city’s own network to give police an even greater view into suburbs.
Council’s lifestyle and community committee head Cr Hermann Vorster said the proposal would act as a deterrent to the Gold Coast’s escalating youth crime crisis, which escalated in February with a series of violent incidents.
Bulletin readers overwhelmingly voted in favour of handing over their footage should it be needed, with 87 per cent on board.
However there remains some confusion over how the concept would work.
Reader Dion wrote: “I am sorry, can someone please tell me how an intricate, expensive CCTV system is going to lower crime? The cops are catching these children now, and the courts are letting them go as instructed by the current laws. So at best, we will identify more juvenile offenders and let them go?”
Sally S added: “Where is this surveillance equipment proposed to be sourced or manufactured?”
Christ hinted at bigger issues: “Priority should be to fix the broken Juvenile Justice System.”
Ashlee ignited debate with their stance.
"Hold parents responsible..? If your child has a run in with the law more than once you should be pulled up for pure ignorance," they wrote.
Ben fired back: "Uou are kidding right. I don't have children but even I know that 30 years ago the right of the parent to discipline the child was taken away from them. this is a problem caused by the people that you are now asking to fix it. the GOVERNMENT."
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“I want to stitch together Queensland’s largest CCTV network – combing thousands of private systems into a powerful crime fighting resource,” he said.
“If the State gets behind my plan, I believe it would put an end to vandals and thieves hopping from cul-de-sac to cul-de-sac looking for victims.
“It is low cost, sensible, meets community expectations and it means police will have more time to kick down doors rather than endlessly knock on doors having to ask for footage.”
The Palaszczuk Government has been under mounting pressure to address youth crime after a series of high-profile incidents, including a two-hour car chase on the northern Gold Coast mid last week.
On Sunday, four teenagers – one aged 13 years – were charged for allegedly stealing two cars in Brisbane and taking them for a joy ride to the Gold Coast.
Data released last month showed the number of juvenile crimes involving knives has doubled in four years.
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Knives were seized in 93 offences committed by 10 to 17-year-olds on the Gold Coast in the 11 months to November last year. Car thefts also went up eight per cent on the Gold Coast in 2020 despite COVID-19 lockdowns.
The Community Camera Alliance register currently covers small parts of Brisbane’s west and northern suburbs, as well as parts of Ipswich and Kingaroy.
Under the council proposal put to the state government, it would be expanded to the Gold Coast, creating a database of the city’s private CCTV networks. The register would record the number and location of the cameras, and their storage capabilities.
Homeowners and business operators would register their networks with police, allowing officers to pinpoint properties that could hold relevant footage for investigations.
Officers would ask for the footage and would not have the ability to monitor tape into a live feed.
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Council recently surveyed 300 households about the register. Ninety-two per cent of respondents said they would be more likely to invest in a CCTV camera network if they knew it could help police.
A spokesman for Police Minister Mark Ryan said crime-fighting ideas would be considered by the Gold Coast Safer Suburbs Forum. The forum, which includes senior police officers, senior MPs and councillors, meets every three months.
“The Chief Superintendent of the Gold Coast Police District (Mark Wheeler) is a member of the Mayoral Safer Suburbs Forum. I am advised Chief Superintendent Wheeler regularly meets to discuss matters around community safety with forum members,” the spokesman said.
“Chief Superintendent Wheeler has advised that any constructive suggestions in relation to community safety will always be considered.
“Criminal offending is never acceptable and police relentlessly pursue those responsible and deploy proactive strategies to disrupt and prevent crime before it happens.”
Gold Coast District Neighbourhood Watch president Peter Barrett wants the register extended to the Coast, saying “it would help in the areas where there is no Neighbourhood Watch”.
‘We are in favour of using CCTV cameras in this fashion because illicit or illegal activity can be followed up on, particularly if it is something which is against good law and order.”
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