Burleigh crime blitz: Mayor Tom Tate says council adding 40 new cameras ahead of light rail arrival

Mayor Tom Tate has revealed details of a dramatic expansion of council efforts to help police combat crime in Burleigh ahead of the start of light rail services in the suburb. Here’s what’s planned.

Council is to dramatically extend its CCTV network in the Burleigh area with 40 sophisticated cameras to be added ahead of the arrival of light rail.

Police numbers have also been boosted in the area which has been scene of a number of high profile incidents – including an alleged assault that took the life of 22-year-old Cameron Duce – and issues highlighted in the Bulletin’s Battle for Burleigh series.

Mayor Tom Tate on Thursday said the cameras, some of which would be shared with the G:Link network, would be in place before the Stage 3 extension to Burleigh opens at the end of next year.

“When we built the monitoring room for CCTV cameras, we built it big enough for adding more monitors to go straight in, and with the additions to include all the way to Burleigh Heads,” he said.

“There will be another 40 cameras. It’s value for money if we can stop crime in our city, and that’s what I intend to do, to make Burleigh a safer place.”

Police on the beat in Burleigh. Picture: Adam Head.

Mayor Tate said the high tech cameras would include facial recognition technology and the ability to capture good quality images even in low light, although use of some of their abilities would be restricted by legislation.

“We’ll be able to zoom right in. The capability of facial recognition is also available,” he said. “I know there are (civil liberty advocates) out there saying you shouldn’t utilise that, but time will tell.

“The minute that legislation comes through that you can turn that part on, we’ll just flick the switch and have it and we’ll know who they are. I think that’s going to be part of catching the crims. And sometimes, if there’s a suspicious person, we’ll even alert the police early so that the crime’s avoided. They’ll run a mile.”

Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate pictured in Southport on Thursday. Picture: Keith Woods.

Superintendent Peter Miles. Picture: Keith Woods.

The news comes amid a focus on crime in Burleigh linked to the growing popularity of late night venues in the suburb.

Superintendent Peter Miles from Gold Coast police last week told the Bulletin that police resources had recently been bolstered in the area.

“We’ve rejigged the rostering to provide better support for the Southern Patrol Group. Not just Burleigh but the Coolangatta night-life is quite a big area as well and being at the bottom end of our policing district, sometimes back-up can take a bit longer. So we need to improve the staff numbers there, that they can look after themselves in isolation. And that’s what we’re doing,” he said.

“We’re getting out RAP (Rapid Action and Patrol group) deployed there on a more permanent basis. We looked at the numbers there and we thought maybe we can increase that and we’ve done that.”

Supt Miles stressed the changes were not the result of any one particular incident.

He said police welcomed the support they received from council, noting CCTV footage had helped with investigations into a number of cases.

“Anything (extra) that council can do with the CCTV footage side of things is welcomed by us,” he said.

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Originally published as Burleigh crime blitz: Mayor Tom Tate says council adding 40 new cameras ahead of light rail arrival