The Gold Coasts’ newest top cops have vowed to combat the city’s major crime challenges, including domestic violence and youth offenders.
A brand-new South Eastern Region Assistant Commissioner, as well as a new Gold Coast District Chief Superintendent will take up their posts this week.
Brian Swan now holds the city’s top job, overseeing the Gold Coast and Logan, where he says youth crime is definitely a priority.
“We’ve got a problem here, not just with youth crime but young offenders,” Assistant Commissioner Swan says.
“That’s obviously a priority, not just for us here in the South East, but across all of Queensland.”
Assistant Commissioner Swan spent around 30 years policing as a Detective in the Gold Coast and Logan, so says he has a “real passion for this region”.
Working with youth to stop them from reoffending is something he wants to work more on.
“One of the things you’ve got to remember is that we’ll always have that group of young offenders that no matter what that we’ll have to pursue and stop them from harming the community, no doubt at all,”
“But there’s a large group of offenders through really good work from our police, from our partner agencies that we stopped from reoffending. So I want to see that work continue, keep us working with our partners, with the community to stop that larger group of people migrating into that group of tough people who we need to stop.”
Domestic violence is also a “critical” issue here on the Gold Coast, with the incoming Assistant Commissioner saying the biggest challenge is ensuring “no one slips through the cracks”.
“It’s a real issue for us, a real challenge,”
“When you look at the number of calls for service we get for domestic and family violence, by and large, our police are dealing with quite complex issues.”
Incoming Gold Coast District Chief Superintendent Craig Hanlon, who has come from Townsville and was last on the Gold Coast two years ago, agrees domestic violence is a huge concern.
“The data clearly shows one in four women either will be or have been a victim of domestic and family violence,” Chief Superintendent Hanlon says.
“And it’s concerning that the most vulnerable people in our community are not safe in their own homes. So we’ll work closely with that.”
The incoming top cops believe there is enough policing on the Gold Coast to cover the growing population in the city.
