New initiatives supporting community safety in Toowoomba

• Extreme High-Visibility police patrols to become permanent in Toowoomba
• Police State Flying Squad to be expanded and given youth crime focus to support communities like Toowoomba
• A trial of Electronic Monitoring Devices to be expanded to include Toowoomba
• Youth Co-responder team initiative expanded to Toowoomba 
• Dedicated teams of police and youth justice will patrol hotspots and engage with at-risk youth across Darling Downs
• Co-responder model has proven successful in Cairns, Townsville, Mackay, Rockhampton, Moreton, North Brisbane, South Brisbane and Gold Coast
• More than 45,000 engagements with young people since July 1, 2020

The Toowoomba region will benefit from the community safety reforms introduced to state Parliament this week.

Extreme high-visibility police patrols will become a permanent feature of policing in the Toowoomba region.

In addition, the State Flying Squad will be expanded and given a youth justice focus to tackle youth crime hotspots whenever and wherever they emerge.

This will provide additional resources to Toowoomba police whenever they may be needed.

A trial of Electronic Monitoring Devices will also be expanded to include Toowoomba.

This trial is also being expanded to apply young offenders 15 years and older (previously only applied to 16 and 17 year olds).

Further, as recently announced, the successful Youth Co-Responder Teams initiative, where police and youth justice workers patrol the streets and engage with young people, will be expanded to Toowoomba.

The program works to reduce youth crime and improve community safety by engaging with at-risk youth and young people on court orders at all hours of the day.

The teams undertake various activities including de-escalating and problem solving where groups congregate, transporting youth to safety, connecting with families and support agencies and exploring diversionary pathways.

The Palaszczuk Government also announced an intensive bail supervision program will be expanded to Toowoomba which provides targeted local case and place-based responses to youth released on bail.

Support is provided by police to help young people comply with their bail conditions and keep them from returning to custody, reducing demand on watchhouses and Youth Justice Detention Centres.

As part of this initiative, police undertake proactive strategies including home bail compliance checks, proactive youth engagement and patrols of known hotspots to improve bail compliance and minimise reoffending of young people on bail.

Between 1 July 2020 and 31 January 2023, police officers carried out 21,497 engagements with young people on bail as part of the intensive program.

Toowoomba will also receive additional funding to expand its intensive case management program, allowing more high-risk young people and their families to access targeted support.

Quotes attributable to Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk:

“Community safety is always my government’s priority.

“We have listened to the community in Toowoomba and we are acting on your concerns.

“This week my Government introduced a comprehensive suite of reforms that target serious repeat offenders, tackle the complex causes of youth crime and invest in community safety.

“People in Toowoomba will see more police, more often, out in the streets patrolling shopping centres and other areas where people gather, and we have introduced breach of bail legislation that is real and will work.

“These reforms allow a greater response to tackling youth crime and its complex causes to help break the cycle of offending for the future, while keeping Queenslanders safe.

“I make no apology for going hard on the serious repeat offenders who cause harm in the community, because we hear you and we are taking action.”

Quotes attributable to Police Minister Mark Ryan:

“Everyone wants the same thing, we want our communities to be safe.

“I know that police work relentlessly every day to achieve that goal.

“And the Palaszczuk Government has a track record of backing police 100 percent, and we are continuing to do that.

“We are providing police with additional resources and the laws they need to target those who wish to do harm to the community.

“We are providing additional funding to police so that “Extreme High-Visibility Police Patrols” will become a permanent feature of policing in Toowoomba.

“More boots on the ground more often and we know that results in increased disruption and prevention of wrong-doing.”

ENDS

Media contact: Minister Ryan’s Office - (07) 3035 8300