Opinion: Private security is no answer to Queensland’s crime epidemic

Queensland cannot allow itself to drift into a South African-style siege mentality where there are now reportedly four private security officers for every one police officer, and where razor wire can mark a house perimeter rather than a picket fence.

That any Queenslander would feel the need to hire private security to patrol their streets is a damning indictment on the state of our criminal justice system.

Yet it is now clear that some residents are doing just that.

As a story in today’s Courier-Mail reveals, householders are paying security guards $360 a night to do a job which should be the sole province of our modern, well-equipped and well-funded state police service.

Queensland cannot allow itself to drift into a South African-style siege mentality where there are now reportedly four private security officers for every one police officer, and where razor wire can mark a house perimeter rather than a picket fence.

Private security guards reveal they are patrolling streets in Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Townsville and Ayr. And the trend also appears to be growing rapidly in Cairns where some residents are so fearful of crime they want to get out of Queensland altogether.

Damien O'Keeffe, Security Supervisor from 24/7 Secure, which has been patrolling streets across a number of Brisbane suburbs. Picture: Richard Walker

The cost of private security is high. Even when a $360 a night bill is spread across seven days and incorporates 20 households a resident can still be handing out more than $120 a week.

That’s a price which the average working Queenslander would find more than a little aggravating given the announcement less than 12 months ago that the Palaszczuk government would be spending a record $3bn on better policing services in Queensland.

Most taxpayers are aware of the constant juggle of competing interests that government departments have to contend with, from health to policing to education. But to have $3bn at your disposal to police 5.3 million people does suggest that a clear-eyed prioritising of expenditure would ensure a reasonably high level of police presence in every one of our communities.

Police and Corrective Services Minister Mark Ryan is probably quite correct to say the state government has funded extreme high-visibility police patrols in communities right across Queensland, and that community safety is considered “paramount’’.

But it’s also highly likely that an increasing number of Queensland residents are not so much losing faith in our police as in the criminal justice system that police are merely a component of.

When a householder catches an individual in their own home, calls police, watches that often youthful criminal carted away in a police vehicle and then sees that very same face in their front yard the next day, they come to know the meaning of the word “powerlessness”.

That such householders would resort to a private security firm which would at least offer protection throughout the long nights is entirely understandable.

Security guard Wayne Heneker and his dog 'Boss', who has been hired by Gold Coast residents to patrol their suburbs. Picture: NIGEL HALLETT

This disturbing trend toward private security is likely to accelerate in the years ahead unless some serious attempt is made to recalibrate the criminal justice system, and especially the juvenile justice system.

It is abundantly clear that today a break and enter is treated as a routine matter, especially when it comes to juveniles.

When Queensland householders are reassured that the violation of their home will be taken deeply seriously by both a police service and a judiciary, whose salaries are paid for by taxpayers’ dollars, this trend towards private security will begin to reverse.

Originally published as Opinion: Private security is no answer to Queensland’s crime epidemic