Darling Downs Police report drop in number of cars stolen from Toowoomba homes

From basing Polair in Toowoomba to pairing police with youth justice social work and turbo-charging the PCYC’s outreach programs, Darling Downs cops are starting to see their youth crime strategies pay off. Read how here.

The raft of strategies Darling Downs police put in place to address a spike in youth crime appears to be having a positive effect with a modest drop in the number of cars stolen in our region in the past year.

There was a 6.2 per cent decrease in reported car theft in the Darling Downs City Patrol Group area, which covers Toowoomba, from 741 in the 2021-22 financial year to 695 in 2022-23.

Toowoomba police are also ahead on the state average in terms of solving crime and putting offenders before the courts.

Upwards of 60 per cent stolen car offences are solved in Toowoomba, compared to Queensland’s average of 49 per cent.

Further afield there was a slight drop in the number of reported unlawful use offences across the Darling Down District, which includes Warwick, the South Burnett, the Lockyer Valley and Goondiwindi, from 1222 in 2021-22 to 1189 in 2022-23.

Southern Region Acting Assistant Commissioner Doug McDonald thanked the community for playing its part in reducing the availability of the soft targets favoured by young offenders.

“These are opportunistic offences,” he said.

“Offenders will walk along a street and try every car, until they find one that is unlocked. Hopefully they do not find one and they give up.

“We are seeing more people heeding the warnings to secure their properties and vehicles.”

While crime prevention was a factor, so was police response with the district rolling out a series of programs to address the spike in car theft that started in February 2022 and contributed to the deaths of several people after those vehicles crashed.

Notably they included Toowoomba women Jemmah Cole-Crighton and Heidi Riding, and 13-year-old boy Keyhill Gibbs.

Jemmah Cole-Crighton, Heidi Riding and Keyhill Gibbs died in separate crashes involving stolen cars over the past two years.

The programs include extra bail checks on young offenders, rolling out the Youth Co-Responder Team pairing cops with youth justice case workers and the Multi-Agency Collaborative Panel that brings personnel from QPS, Youth Justice, Child Safety, Queensland Health and Queensland Education together to manage high-risk offenders.

With extra overtime funding through Operation Victor Unison police have been running more patrols in high risk areas and Polair is now based in Toowoomba for regular shifts.

The PCYC is running more outreach programs to help the families of youth offenders manage their behaviour while a Southern Region Youth Justice Co-ordinator works with the wider community to address the causes of crime.

QPS Acting Assistant Commissioner for the Southern Region Doug McDonald said the range of strategies introduced to address a spike in youth crime appear to be bearing results. Picture: Kevin Farmer

Assistant Commissioner McDonald said some of the programs were well older than a year but they were starting having an effect.

“I also want to acknowledge the community’s role in this, with reporting crime in a timely manner and providing video, from dashcams and CCTV,” he said.

“Police cannot solve this problem alone.

“When you compare the Darling Downs to the rest of the state, we are one of the few areas that has seen a decrease, but this is coming off a high base.”