Terrified DV victim punted by police after waiting hours for help at the city’s busiest station

The pressure on police at the Coast’s busiest station has hit breaking point with a DV victim forced to wait hours for help.

Friend of a domestic violence victim claims she was turned away by police after waiting 4 hours for help.

Residents seeking urgent help are waiting up to four hours at the Gold Coast’s busiest police station because only one officer is available during peak periods.

A 23-year-old woman seeking a domestic violence protection order on Wednesday night after arriving at the Southport police station about 4pm waited until 7pm before seeing an officer.

A resident who had fronted the police station’s front desk earlier and wanted to make a missing person’s report was told the wait was four hours because only one officer was available at reception.

The resident was told: “You can either sit and wait or go away and come back.”

The DV complainant, who has asked not to be named, was concerned about her safety after an ex-boyfriend threatened to “stalk her at her workplace’. She was anxious about attending.

“I was like ‘do I go in and talk to police or do I not’. I got to talk to a police officer for about five minutes,” she said.

She said it appeared up to six officers were working at the station but only one officer was available to attend the front desk until 10pm.

A male friend of the complainant told the Bulletin: “She was vulnerable, and (I was) there for support. She was left waiting in the foyer for an inordinate amount of time. It left her very distressed.

Southport Police Station, is struggling to keep pace with population growth and increasing demand. Picture: NCA NewsWire/ Richard Gosling

“She felt for her safety, going there in the first place. It’s a big step.”

Southport Police Division has been in a staffing crisis for years, and now the Bulletin can reveal just how dire the situation has become.

Analysis of data provided to state parliament reveals that over the last 13 years the number of officers has increased by a mere 1.9 per cent while the population has grown at a rate of more than 16 times that.

Since 2010, only two new officers have been allocated to the region, bringing the total number of approved police to 101.

Over the same period key offences have spiked. Domestic violence is up over 517 per cent to 809 incidents so far this year, assaults have increase 150 per cent to 717, sexual offences also growing at a similar rate.

The number of calls for help that officers at Southport are responding to has jumped 57 per cent in three years from 20,887 between 2017-2018 to 32,758 between 2019-2020.

The data highlights the findings from an internal Queensland Police Service report obtained by the Bulletin in March this year which warned Southport central policing district cannot keep pace with the city’s population growth and increasing demand for call-outs.

The report revealed the station was often operating at half strength at night, putting officers in danger.

A police source says the challenge is compounded by police attending to the watch house and operating the counter 24-7.

“The counter itself attracts a higher proportion of people reporting an array of matters than any other division,” the police source said.

“Often these jobs take time to complete and result in a case officer to retain and complete when out on the road and can be investigated further,” the source said.

Some officers have more than 30 jobs in their task list which grows rapidly during the week. They must investigate reported crime within 28 days, under police performance guidelines.

Coast officers have on occasions reported they cannot attend an afternoon call-out because there were more than 15 jobs in the queue. Almost 60 incidents can remain outstanding.

“I have been to a welfare check that turns out to be a dead body. More than once. These jobs sit in the Southport lists until a crew is available often with a response from police communications,” a source said.

Late last year, it was also revealed Southport’s CBD was left with not a single officer to attend call-outs on Friday nights prompting crisis intervention, with officers pulled from other stations on overtime to fill the roster.