Hundreds sign petition for police van at crime hotspot at Victoria Point after teen assault

Bayside residents, who watched in horror as a teen girl was allegedly assaulted at a bus stop in broad daylight, have ditched pleas for a fully-staffed police station and changed tack.

Police officers arrest two teens outside McDonald’s restaurant at Victoria Point in 2023. Picture: Contributed

Bayside residents, who watched in horror as a teen girl was allegedly assaulted at a bus stop in broad daylight, have ditched pleas for a fully-staffed police station and instead are now calling for a permanent mobile police van.

Within hours of a parliamentary petition going online, more than 570 people had signed the call for the mobile police van to patrol Redland’s Victoria Point Shopping Centre.

The push for the permanent mobile police van followed an unsuccessful decade-long campaign for a permanent police station.

Victoria Point grandmother Maria Sealy said she was fed up with crime near the major shopping centre, which backs on to her property and decided to push again for more police at the centre.

Victoria Point woman Maria Sealy wants a permanent mobile police van at the shopping centre next door to her home. Pictures: Contributed

Police Minister Mark Ryan said in August he would speak to the-then Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll about stepping up patrols at the centre but residents say very little has changed.

A group, led by Ms Sealy has unsuccessfully lobbied the state government for more than a decade for a fully-operational police station at the HomeCo shopping centre, which includes a 24-hour McDonald’s, a tavern, late-night takeaway restaurants and a bottleshop.

A petition for a Police Beat for Victoria Point was tabled in State Parliament in 2019 with more than 1000 signatures.

This week, they decided to pursue the “more tangible” option and lodged the petition after Ms Sealy said the young female teen had been left traumatised since the incident in January.

Initial police reports said the teen ran from the bus stop to the nearby McDonald’s for refuge during the middle of the day after she was allegedly assaulted by three teenage girls.

“The McDonald’s manager was the hero and rang triple-0 but the response time was three hours and we think that is too slow,” Ms Sealy said.

“We need a police presence here on site and believe incidents such as this would not happen if there was a police van.

“Redland Bay and Cleveland police stations are too far away and no longer viable to service Victoria Point.

“There is also urgent need for harsher penalties for underage offenders and a permanent stronger police presence in Victoria Point will help.”

Police Minister Mark Ryan, right, vowed to look into the matter whern he visited Redland Bay police station, which is 7km away, last year. Picture: Judith Kerr

The alleged January bus stop incident was one of a number of violent alleged attacks in and around the shopping centre including a brawl in which a schoolgirl was punched near the local cinemas late last year and the arrest of two teens outside McDonald’s after a scuffle with police.

In March, police arrested five youths after alcohol was stolen from the BWS bottleshop at night.

Queensland Police declined to comment but according to QPS data there has been a startling 20.25 per cent rise in alleged crime in the suburb from 2022 to 2023.

Although there were no homicides reported in the suburb in 2023, QPS data showed theft, drug dealing, trafficking, burglary and break and enters were the top alleged crimes in the suburb over the past year.

Crime mapping site Red Suburbs, which uses QPS statistics, rated Victoria Point as having a moderate level of crime compared to other areas in Australia.

Red Suburbs gave the number and severity of crimes in Victoria Point 10 out of 100 on a national scale proportionate to population, where zero indicates no crime.

Regular shopper to the Victoria Point centre Diane Coleman said the mobile van was needed because the area was experiencing excessive population growth which was expected to continue.

“We have been here for 35 years and we have noticed an alarming increase of reported incidents, such as car thefts, serious assaults, and robberies,” Ms Coleman said.

“We have been shopping here at night and I have seen youths in the carpark, which was later vandalised along with a number of cars.

“There are a range of issues that police need to attend to in this area including drugs and alcohol in public places and e-scooter riders ignoring state speed laws.”

Originally published as Hundreds sign petition for police van at crime hotspot at Victoria Point after teen assault