Dedicated police position vanishes from Harbour Town station in last cut to the frontline

The coast’s last shopping centre police beat has been left with just a single dedicated officer with police struggling to deal with the growing workload. SEE WHY

One of the coast’s busiest shopping and retail centres has just one permanent police officer, the Bulletin can reveal.

There were two officers dedicated to working the Biggera Waters Police Beat on Ocean Street in 2016.

But it appears one of those roles was cut when the station was relocated to the Harbour Town Shopping Centre in late 2019.

The Queensland Police Service concedes the official approved number of officers at the station is 1, but says there are still 2 officers working at the location.

Harbour Town Police Beat Shopfront at Biggera Waters. Picture: Charlton Hart

“The second officer who works at the shopfront with the permanent officer in charge is on a rotational basis from Runaway Bay Station,” a QPS spokesman said.

Senior police sources within the central Gold Coast beat claim that isn’t the case, saying the second officer is “regularly” not available to work at the shopping precinct.

“You have 24 people at the closest station, at best, you’d have less than half of them working on shift at a given time, at worst you’re down to single figures,” one source said.

“When you’re that stretched, you’re not giving up a person to go and deal with shoplifting, not when you have domestic violence and out of control youth crime.

“There’s one officer there and they do what they can, the number of police recruits hasn’t kept pace, it doesn’t even come close so we are dealing with what we can”.

The Runaway Bay Police Division which includes the Harbour Town station has not had any additional officers allocated to the area in more than 13 years.

Bonney MP Sam O'Connor lobbied for the Harbour Town Police Beat.

State MP for Bonney, Sam O’Connor, lobbied the government to relocate the station to Harbour Town in 2019 and says he was told there would be two dedicated officers working at the shopfront.

“Having just one officer officially on the books for the Harbour Town Police Beat shows how bad police numbers are under the state government” he said.

“The reason I advocated to have the Biggera Waters Police Beat relocated was to give more people easier access to our local officers.

“This is a key hub of our community and our city, it’s visited by millions of people a year. The police presence we were promised should be maintained”.

However, Police Minister Mark Ryan reiterated that the same number of police were still working at the shopping precinct.

“The allocation of police resources is determined by the Commissioner following the detailed assessment of area growth, crime and safety issues, calls for service, new or emerging issues, and facility requirements” he said.

“It’s also important to note that the Gold Coast is supported by the Gold Coast Rapid Action and Patrol.”

Harbour Town is the last shopping centre on the Gold Coast to have a dedicated police presence after the Bulletin revealed three other stations have quietly closed.

The shopfronts at Pacific Fair and Robina Town Centre were closed in July last year despite protests from local officers to keep them open.

The Police Beat at Australia Fair shopping centre in Southport was closed 12 months prior. The Queensland Police Service says there are “no plans” to close the Harbour Town site.