Qld’s youth crime crisis: Kids as young as 10 are being found carrying knives in public

Less than two weeks after a grandmother was stabbed to death at an Ipswich shopping centre, police made an alarming discovery outside one of Qld’s biggest retail precincts.

Deputy Commissioner Shane Chelepy has doubled down on calls for police powers to be expanded to shopping centres. Picture: Liam Kidston

Nearly 500 knives, machetes, hunting blades, axes and knuckle dusters have been seized by police in the first year of new wanding laws, with an “alarming” one in 40 people caught carrying weapons outside the state’s biggest retail precincts.

Deputy Commissioner Shane Chelepy, who has been put in charge of tackling Queensland’s youth crime crisis, said the laws were working but called for the police powers to be expanded to shopping centres.

Less than two weeks after the stabbing death of 70-year-old grandmother Vyleen White at Redbank Plains Town Square shopping centre, police conducted a wanding blitz outside Westfield Chermside and seized a knife on the first search.

Some of the knives seized by police during the first year of wanding laws. Picture: Queensland Police

Speaking on the approach of the first anniversary of Jack’s Law - the legacy of 17-year-old Jack Beasley who was stabbed to death during a night out on the Gold Coast in 2019 - Mr Chelepy said children as young as 10 were being found carrying bladed weapons.

“As I saw personally (during a wanding operation) at Chermside, the first person we scanned, we asked do you have anything you want to tell us about - and he produced a knife,” he said.

“Some of the weapons that we’re actually seeing are flick knives, they are hunting knives … they are not knives that you would have lying around the house.

“We’ve seen machetes, we’ve seen knuckle dusters. These are the sorts of things that we see.”

Wanding laws currently give officers powers to stop and search people for weapons in safe night precincts and public transport hubs but police want to be able to target shopping centres.

Mr Chelepy said “alarmingly”, a wanding operation conducted by police two weeks ago at public transport hubs, including one adjacent Westfield Chermside, found one in 40 people searched were carrying knives.

Queensland Police Service wanding operations in Townsville, Gold Coast and Brisbane over the Easter weekend has resulted in six positive knife detections, with 586 people scanned during the Easter weekend operations. Source: QPS

He said when wanding trials began on the Gold Coast in 2021, police were seizing one weapon for every 80 people scanned.

Over the past 12 months, with regular wanding in safe night precincts, that ratio has dropped to one weapon for every 100 scans.

“So not only are we removing the weapons off the street, we’re actually seeing a bit of a deterrent effect. We’re seeing less weapons being brought into those areas,” Mr Chelepy said.

“What’s actually alarming is when you look at those ratios around bus stations and train stations, we did Chermside (public transport hub) only two weeks ago and got one weapon every 40 scans.

“That’s really alarming to me.”

Mr Chelepy said between April 2023 and March 2024, police scanned 48,383 people and seized 478 weapons.

Wanding operations resulted in 1291 arrests and 2315 charges.

He said the amount of knife crime committed by young offenders appeared to be an emerging trend and credited social media with being partially behind it.

“We’re seeing more of these weapons … because people are becoming more aware of it through social media - that probably wasn’t as prolific 10 years ago.

“But this isn’t just in Queensland - this is across Australia.”

Deputy Commissioner Shane Chelepy said a small and more violent cohort were carrying knives. Picture: Liam Kidston

Mr Chelepy said the knife crime trend in Australia appeared to have followed what London Metropolitan Police had been seeing for some years.

“It’s definitely a trend that we’re seeing. We’re seeing a small cohort, (who are) more violent, carrying knives, which is what we don’t want to see,” he said.

Premier Steven Miles recently said the government was considering expanding wanding powers.

“All of these actions fit within our broader framework of preventing, intervening and detaining where necessary,” Mr Miles said.

“If we can stop the sale of a weapon to a young person then we will have prevented a crime. If we can monitor them on bail and stop them breaching their bail, then we will have intervened to stop a crime.”

Originally published as Qld’s youth crime crisis: Kids as young as 10 are being found carrying knives in public