Queensland is frequently portrayed as being in the grips of a worsening crime, epidemic despite data suggesting otherwise. But a trip down memory lane reveals the media has been reporting a similar sentiment for nearly 200 years.
Queensland is frequently portrayed as being in the grips of a worsening crime, epidemic despite data suggesting otherwise. But a trip down memory lane reveals the media has been reporting a similar sentiment for nearly 200 years.
So, in my regional QLD city, the inner city (keep in mind, it’s a small city) has between 50 and 100 serious crimes committed per day. As a local, my experience is if you call 000 there’s a serious risk the police will all be responding to a more serious crime and yours won’t get a response at all - they’ll turn up hours later or the next day and ask you to fill out some paperwork. Things are literally out of control.
And it’s crystal clear, if you look at the actual numbers (not the media headlines), that there has been a radical increase in youth crime over the last several years. Forget the 1900’s… I’m talking about just five years ago juvenile crime rates were drastically lower than they are today.
I totally agree that the media’s reporting on the issue sucks… but at the same time the issue is very very real.
What’s the rough population? What’s a serious crime? 50 to 100 a day is 18 to 35000 serious crimes a year. Where are you getting your stats?
Because if it’s not Brisbane, then it’s like one in 10 of the population of gold coast or central coast per year having a serious crime or one in 3 for Townsville or smaller. Seems unlikely to me, but I’m open to seeing your data.
Numbers are for Cairns, stats are offical QLD Police numbers form their Online Crime Map. Feel free to look it up yourself - but on September 17th for example, there were 94 offences (that was the highest number in the last 3 months - if you go back further it doesn’t give daily totals).
24,822 offences int he last 12 months.
The most common crime is theft (26 of those on the 17th), the second most common is assault (13 on the 17th). And they are probably under-reported (I know I haven’t reported all of the times I’ve been a victim of theft or assault… what’re the police going to do about it? Nothing. They’ll just interview me and that’s all - I’ve only reported incidents where I needed it for an insurance claim).
Population of Cairns is hard to estimate with any accuracy, since covid has resulted in both a mass exodus and a mass influx of people at the same time. Rentals are damn near impossible to find here, so the “influx” has definitely been larger than the “exodus”.
I’ve seen population estimates anywhere from 160k to 200k, and all from reliable sources (like the council). My hunch is it’s probably towards the higher end of that.