Police documents show Southport and Logan watch houses running out of room weekly

Leaked internal police documents reveal Gold Coast watch houses are reaching capacity multiple times per week. Why police are struggling to cope

Internal police alerts show watchhouses across the Gold Coast are “dangerously” full with police running out of room to offload detainees, in some cases multiple times per week.

On Tuesday the Logan District watchhouse had to issue a capacity notification to police stations across the southeast.

The internal document, obtained by the Bulletin, revealed the lock-up had run out of space by lunchtime.

“Attempts to transfer prisoners to neighbouring W/H’s has been unsuccessful due to their own capacity issues,” the alert states. 

“If prisoner is violent attend W/H immediately.”

The Logan District is part of the South Eastern Police Region for which the Gold Coast District is also a part of.

Police sources say detainees should have been shared between the region and offloaded to Southport or Coolangatta.

“They (Southport) are dangerously full so they can’t take prisoners or they’ll end up like Logan,” an officer told the Bulletin.

“It’s a perfect storm. Youth centres are full and they’re (juveniles) being held in the watchhouse. One example at Southport, they had a kid for three weeks.”

It’s the latest development in a spiralling staffing crisis gripping the Gold Coast Police District as reported by the Bulletin.

Police beats at the city’s two largest shopping centres have been cut, stations are regularly under staffed and unable to put cars on the road.

The situation has sparked an internal revolt within the rank and file. It coincided with the resignation of police commissioner Katarina Carroll four months before her contract was due to expire.

Southport watch house reaching capacity multiple times per week in some cases according to police sources. Picture Glenn Hampson/Archive

The Bulletin has obtained a number of capacity alerts issued since January which appear to show Southport and Logan have, in some cases, run out of room in the cells multiple times per week.

Staff claim they’re driving hours to off-load detainees at other facilities, which is leaving less vehicles on the road to attend call outs.

“There are watch houses here (Gold Coast) for a reason. To hold arrests here so we can get back to doing our job,” a police source said.

“It is not normal to drive from Palm Beach to Richlands to lock someone up or vice versa.”

Officers claim they’ve been struggling to manage demand since late last year when watch houses across the state faced dangerous overcrowding.

Mt Isa watch house had hit 219 percent capacity by October, Townsville was at 178 percent while Cairns was about a quarter over its allocation.

The Queensland Police Union president Ian Leavers labelled the situation “disgraceful” and called for urgent action to avoid deaths.

“In what sort of world is it acceptable to allow watchhouses to exceed 100 per cent capacity?” Mr Leavers said at the time.

The state government intervened and began shifting detainees to other facilities which included Southport. The old Coolangatta lock-up was taken out of mothballs to manage overflow arrests.

“Leavers made the right call, it was better to have everyone share the load, than a few watchhouses that are stuffed,” a Gold Coast custody officer said.

“It should have been a short term solution while they (government) came up with a better plan.

“They haven’t done anything and we’re filling up statewide. It’s a death in custody waiting to happen. It’s a matter of when.”

Over crowding concerns raised at Coolangatta watch house.

Concern of overcrowding at the Coast’s watchhouses are growing after the Queensland Police Service revealed earlier this week how many detainees were being held at Coolangatta. Gold Coast Chief Superintendent Craig Hanlon said on Monday the site could house ‘about a dozen’ inmates. The lockup was reported to have room for just three people in 2019.

The QPS later clarified the lockup had capacity for seven inmates. However it was unable to say how it could fit the prisoners in a facility designed to take half that number.

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