High visibility police operation marks one-year milestone with 11,000 arrests

• More than 11,000 people arrested on 17,000 charges across Queensland during the first year of a high visibility policing operation.
• Operation Whiskey Unison is a dedicated and ongoing police operation designed to enhance community safety through highly visible officer activities including foot patrols, wanding and mobile police vehicle deployments.  
• Enables extra officers to walk through shopping precincts, deploy to hotspot areas, conduct bail checks and engage with young people to disrupt and deter offending.
• Boosted patrols and arrests are co-ordinated in addition to the day-to-day policing operations conducted by local frontline police.

Police have charged more than 11,000 people with around 17,000 offences throughout Queensland since a high visibility policing operation began in March last year.

Operation Whiskey Unison focuses on preventing, disrupting, and investigating youth crime through community engagement and patrols at intelligence-driven hotspot locations.

In the past 12 months, Operation Whiskey Unison has resulted in a total of 11,023 people being arrested on 17,791 charges, including drug, weapons, traffic, property crime and bail offences.

Of the people arrested, 4,149 of them were juveniles, who are facing 7,551 charges.

There have been 160,406 proactive activities completed by Police and Police Liaison Officers across the state, including hotspot patrols, shopping centre and business walkthroughs, bail compliance checks, community engagements and service station drop-ins.

Targeted youth crime locations can vary across the state, but include shopping centres, business, retail and restaurant precincts, service stations and other public spaces, as well as residential areas.

The boots-on-the-ground style of operation also allows more opportunities for officers and Police Liaison Officers (PLOs) to conduct bail checks and engage with young people.

Patrols largely involve a dedicated police presence using marked vehicles, Mobile Police Beats and foot patrols in known hotspot areas, with assets such as Mounted Unit and Highway patrol also utilised.

It is just one of the high visibility policing initiatives that are continuing to ensure the community feels safe, including the ‘Bring the Beat’ initiative, which is currently available in Townsville and Brisbane.

Residents in those areas can now request a Mobile Police Beat be deployed to their local area, where community members and business owners would like to see a greater police presence.

The boosted police presence across these initiatives also enables the community to speak with police about issues affecting their street and suburb.

Quotes attributable to Premier Steven Miles

“Queenslanders must feel and be safe, wherever they are, and wherever they go.

“On the streets, in shopping centres, on public transport, in any public space.

“It’s why our government launched these high visibility police patrols around the state and these figures show it’s working.

“Under our government, there will always be more police, more patrols, on the streets, to keep Queenslanders safe.”

Quotes attributable to Police Minister Mark Ryan

“It is incredible to see such high visibility and engagement come from this Operation, as it shows we are holding these offenders accountable for their actions.

“In its first year, Operation Whiskey Unison has made a real difference in local communities, by helping to not only disrupt offending, but prevent crime from occurring in the first place.

“The engagement side of policing is just as important as enforcement, because we know intervention and rehabilitation for young offenders is crucial in breaking the cycle of crime and delivering long-term change.”

Quotes attributable to Acting Assistant Commissioner Andrew Massingham:

“Having these extra boots on the ground as part of Operation Whiskey Unison over the past 12 months has been integral to supporting our officers across the state.

“Our officers work tirelessly to deter youth crime and we are taking steps in the right direction, but we know this is just the beginning of what will be a long road of persistent efforts.

“Everyone from our Police Liaison officers who engage our multi-cultural and First Nations communities, to general duties patrolling shopping centres and known crime hotspots, and our District crime prevention teams working hard to assist victims of crime - our frontline does a wonderful job and the result we’ve seen from Whiskey Unison is testament to this.”

“We know high visibility is an important deterrent and it all counts towards ensuring the community feels safe.”

ENDS