Miami One shopping centre crime: Bloody syringe found in toilets

Residents living near a major Gold Coast shopping centre say they are afraid to shop there after dark, as photos emerge showing a blood-filled syringes they say was found in the toilets.

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RESIDENTS and a state MP want the government to set up a police beat in Miami to end ongoing crime and violence by out-of-control youths.

The breaking of a Japanese man’s arm by a group of unruly youths outside a supermarket was the final straw.

The problem has got so bad some residents are refusing to shop at the Miami One shopping centre after dark.

Mermaid Beach MP Ray Stevens says he has held talks with shopping centre managers and reached out to the Police Minister to ensure a police presence beachside between Palm Beach and Broadbeach.

The Bulletin has been sent photographs and video from residents of a bloody syringe in a shopping centre toilet, people sleeping rough on the pavement and drunken exchanges between youths.

A blood-filled syringe residents allege was found in the toilets of a Miami shopping centre on the Gold Coast.

Facebook messages from concerned residents reveal they will not shop at Miami One after dark.

Mr Stevens told State Parliament he was appalled by a recent incident in which a Japanese person was set upon by four youths in the middle of the Miami One Shopping Centre.

The juvenile crime squad was investigating but it would lead to a “lettuce-leaf slap on the wrist” due to Labor’s weak laws, he said.

“I have spoken to senior police about the possibility of establishing a police beat in the Miami One Shopping Centre to send a loud-and-clear message to potential miscreants, such as the police beat that they have established in the Harbour Town shopping centre.”

He said he had contacted the shopping centre managers and they were “more than happy to assist by providing a highly visible premises to police at a peppercorn rental”.

Residents concerned about crime and safety have provided photographs of the scenes around a Miami shopping centre on the Gold Coast.

The state government was prepared to back police beats in areas north of the Coast and should also consider the Miami proposal, Mr Stevens said.

“I am pleased that as recently as this week in the House the Minister for Police has confirmed the use of police beats as a strong deterrent to crime when he said that the electorate of Pumicestone was soon to get a police beat in its central area,” he said.

“If it is good enough for the minister to provide a police beat in the Labor electorate of Pumicestone, then surely it is good enough to supply a police beat in the Miami One Shopping Centre, which obviously is not a Labor electorate and probably never will be.

“Whilst there is a police station at Broadbeach and one at Palm Beach, it is 12.7 kilometres between those two stations, which is the greatest distance between any stations on the Gold Coast.”

Miami Residents Community Group leader David Rogers provided the Bulletin with Facebook posts of concerned residents and the photographs of suspected crime and drug activity around the centre.

He said a Japanese man who works at a local language school spoke to a group of teens abusing customers as they exited Coles.

As one witness posted online: “They are obviously wasted or on drugs, the main one is just losing it at people and being totally menacing.”

But when the man attempted to speak to them, they broke his arm and stole his phone.

“He is physically and emotionally shattered,” Mr Rogers said.

“He is now desperate to get back to Japan. It’s a sad indictment on the crime in Miami and the violence all residents have witnessed or heard about at Miami One.”

POLICE COMMISSIONER 'CANNOT GUARANTEE' POLICE NUMBERS WON'T DECREASE IF BEATS SHUT

QUEENSLAND Police “cannot guarantee” police numbers won’t decrease if police beats on the Gold Coast are shut down and replaced with mobile police beats.

Currumbin MP Laura Gerber during Estimates in December called on Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll to guarantee numbers would stay the same if an Elanora police beat was closed down.

Commissioner of Police Katarina Carroll pictured during Estimates at Parliament House, Brisbane 14th of December 2020. (Image/Josh Woning)

She asked: “Can you guarantee parity (equivalent numbers) if you were to close down, for instance, a police beat that is in a house?”

Commissioner Carroll refused to guarantee police numbers and said shifting demand made it difficult to promise anything.

“If there is a closure of a beat, we will make sure that there is something else like a mobile beat to service that,” she said.

“But you will have it in those areas where the demand is greatest.

“At the moment what you have in some of those suburbs is an officer working shifts where it might not be that busy and they could be used elsewhere.

Laura Gerber. (News Corp/Attila Csaszar)

“In essence (with mobile beats) you are getting more bang for your buck because you will have an agile system rather than someone just sitting in a beat constantly.”

Outside parliament Ms Gerber told the Bulletin she wanted a guarantee her electorate wouldn’t lose its police numbers.

“I fully understand if it needs to move due to demand elsewhere within the Currumbin electorate, but my community cannot afford to lose the protection of a police beat,” she said.

“Gold Coasters deserve to feel safe no matter where they live and the threat of police stations being closed in their community is of grave concern.

“This is the last thing the Gold Coast needs.”

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Originally published as Miami One shopping centre crime: Bloody syringe found in toilets