Crime in Brisbane
Brisbane, the capital of Queensland, Australia, is a safe city by world standards, but does experience crime in a limited capacity.
Crime statistics
There are a number of areas throughout the Brisbane Metro Area which have shown escalating criminal activity and gang activity over the past decade. Some of these areas included the Woodridge and areas neighbouring the Brisbane city limits such as the Gold Coast and Surfers Paradise.
Augustine Heights, Bellbird Park, Camira, Carole Park, Gailes, Goodna and Springfield recorded the highest number of break-ins in 2012.
Although Underwood and surrounds has been identified as the state’s home break-in hot spot.
In August 2013, the Queensland Police Service launched an online crime map (https://data.police.qld.gov.au/CrimeStatsMobile) to provide crime data to the public.
Railway stations
Some railway stations have issues with youth gangs and individuals harassing passengers and police officers.[citation needed]
Other stations with just between four and six assaults in the same period were South Brisbane, Cannon Hill, Beenleigh, Central, Strathpine and Caboolture. Burpengary, Bald Hills and Indooroopilly train stations were the only on the Citytrain network to have a grievous assault - defined as potentially causing permanent injury or disability.[1]
However the Queensland Police Operations Support Command say that the network is safe and that the rate of crime is not worse than that in the community in general, explaining that the perception it was higher was due to the close confines of being in a passenger train.[1] The network operator, QR Limited, has implemented various security initiatives over more than a decade that includes closed-circuit television at stations and within trains, and patrols over the network and on-board services by Revenue Protection Officers, uniformed and plain-clothed police officers of the network's own squad, and security guards, to deter crime and assist with identifying offenders.
Youth gangs
Like many metropolitan areas, youth gangs have always had a large part in the amount of crime occurring within various problem areas of Brisbane. Such violence has prompted the Queensland Commissioner to reactivate a Youth Gang Taskforce.[2]
