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LNP Government’s criminal reforms pay off says Queensland’s top cop Ian Stewart

 

 
 
CRIME in Queensland dropped at least 10 per cent in the past financial year, according to Police Commissioner Ian Stewart, who attributed the fall to sweeping reforms and a crackdown on bikies.

The state’s top cop says he can’t release official figures yet but declared he expected to exceed his target of a 10 per cent decrease in crime.

 

“I don’t want to crow about it but when I started last year I said I was hopeful we would get a 10 per cent reduction in crime, that is the reported crime,” he told The Courier-Mail. “I think we’re going to exceed that and quite honestly that is a real hallmark and milestone figure.”

Mr Stewart said rapid response police “hubs”, mobile technology such as iPads, extra police and tougher laws had also helped curb crime.

He said the drop proved changes to the Queensland Police Service had worked.

The crime figures coincide with a decline in the 2014 road toll, on track to be the lowest on record in Queensland.

“I want to push the crime rate even lower,” Mr Stewart said. “Fundamentally, the work we have done with the CMGs (outlawed motorcycle gangs) has been quite outstanding.”

He said property crime and personal crime had decreased in the past year, with drops of 30 per cent in some areas relating to robberies and assaults.

Other statistics, as drug arrests and arrests for street offences, had increased, which Mr Stewart said illustrated the police effort.

Police have also begun using scorecards – assessing the average number of traffic fines, RBTs, street checks and calls for service per officer.

He said the public was no longer scared of calling police about bikies, with more than 1100 reports to Crime Stoppers since the Government announced its crackdown.

“I think what that is showing is the community, particularly people who are victims of CMG-related crime, has the confidence now to come forward to report that,” he said.

Mr Stewart said an extra 800 officers had been hired in the past four years. “It’s not only the arrests that are having an effect, it’s the fact we’re actually preventing a lot of crime by the sheer numbers of police out there,” he said.

“I think that deters people from particular types of crime and I think that deters people from breaking traffic laws.”

 

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Queensland Police Commissioner Ian Stewart said the public was no longer scared of calling police about bikies, with more than 1100 reports to Crime Stoppers since the Government announced its crackdown. Picture: Jack Tran

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