Queensland Police are cracking down on hoons with a brand-new technology allowing the community to easily dob in hooning activity.
The initiative will allow the community to upload digital hooning evidence such as video footage and photographs to the police.
The vision can then be used by Police as evidence to take action under Australia’s toughest anti-hoon legislation.
Assistant Commissioner Ben Marcus says he understands “everybody is sick of hoons”.
“It’s not clever, it’s not funny, it’s dangerous and it annoys the hell out of people,” Mr Marcus said.
“We’re encouraging everyone to get this footage through to us.”
Police Minister Mark Ryan said it’s a world-leading initiative that complements the State’s new anti-hoon laws.
Under the laws, the registered owner of a car must prove they were not driving the vehicle at the time of the offence or else face the consequences, similar to the arrangements that occur with a speeding offence detected by a speed camera.
“What we’ve got now in Queensland is not only some of the strongest penalties which mean people can go to jail, have big fines or have their car confiscated and impounded but with our new driver deeming laws that we passed last year, all the police need is video footage of the car, the number plate and the hooning activity,” Minister Ryan said.
“If you tick all of those boxes you can expect a knock on the door from the Queensland Police.”
The Assistant Commissioner said the new upload capability was already producing results.
“The online facility has only been operating for a matter of weeks and already the community has responded providing police with critical pieces of evidence,” Mr Marcus said.
“This upload capability provides another significant way in which members of the public can assist the police.”
Minister Ryan is urging the community to be “the eyes and ears” of Queensland Police.
“One of the strengths of policing in Queensland is that we work closely with the community, and the community works closely with the police.”
In 2021, more than 4,000 vehicles were impounded or were immobilised or had their number plates confiscated by the Queensland Police Service for hooning-related offences.
