Article: Queensland's train station crime hotspots revealed

[ozbob]

From Brisbanetimes click here!

Queensland's train station crime hotspots revealed

Queensland's train station crime hotspots revealed
CONAL HANNA
January 8, 2010 - 5:00AM

Commuters on the Ipswich or Gold Coast train lines should be sure to lock their car, while those heading to Central Station had better watch their wallet.

And while Beenleigh-bound passengers are among South-East Queensland's worst behaved, it's the Ferny Grove line that's most hit often by vandals.

Citytrain figures released to brisbanetimes.com.au highlight reported crimes at every train station from July 1, 2007 to June 30, 2008.

The results are bad news for those who undertake Queensland Rail's invitation to 'park and ride' at stations on the Gold Coast and Ipswich lines.

The top 10 stations for car crime - combining numbers of stolen vehicles with car break-in offences - were all on those two lines.

The two worst stations were Ebbw Vale (21 offences) and Wacol (20), both on the Ipswich line.

Other stations on the Ipswich line with large figures included East Ipswich (14), Riverview (13), Walloon (13), Goodna (12) and Bundamba (10).

On the Gold Coast line, Coomera (14), Helensvale (13), Loganlea (11) and Beenleigh (10) all featured in the top 10.

Bald Hills and Nambour, on the Caboolture/Nambour line, also recorded 10 vehicle offences each.

Also on the Gold Coast line, Beenleigh train station recorded 66 'good order' offences, covering charges such as public nuisance or disturbing the peace.

This was higher than Fortitude Valley's 52 or Ipswich's 40 and up there with Roma Street's 73.

However, Central Station still recorded the most good order offences with 111.

Not surprisingly, given its large passenger numbers, Central was also a hotspot for other crimes, with 34 stealing and 26 drug offences.

By comparison, Fortitude Valley, the city's entertainment precinct, had only 13 drug offences.

South Bank station recorded 30 good order offences, and nine drug offences.

Central locations were also worst for assaults, with these more serious offences generally spread fairly evenly outside the CBD.

Roma Street recorded 10 instances of assault, Central Station eight, South Bank and South Brisbane seven each, and Bowen Hills and Fortitude Valley five each.

Vandalism was particularly prevalent north of the city, be it on the Ferny Grove or Caboolture lines.

There were a total of 176 offences for property damage on the railway lines at Mitchelton (93) and Keperra (83) in Brisbane's northwest.

The station at Mitchelton was also hurt by property damage with 22 offences, as were Petrie (14), Toombul (13), Nundah (10) and Caboolture (10), all on the northside.

There were 40 reports of property damage on the railway line at Bowen Hills, along with 27 offences for trespassing and vagrancy.

A spokeswoman said QR was constantly looking to improve passenger safety and that serious crime on the network had not climbed in recent years despite considerable patronage growth.

She pointed to the rollout of 4500 CCTV cameras at train stations and car parks, and regular `Car Smart' breakfasts held by Queensland Police as measures taken to help reduce crime.

"Because of these initiatives, the rate of criminal activity remains significantly lower on QR property than across the general community," she said.

A Queensland Police spokeswoman said there were two types of car thieves, the opportunist and the professional, and each required different preventative strategies.

To protect against opportunists, she advised always locking doors and windows, parking in a well lit area, ensuring any valuables in the car - even loose change - were out of sight, and installing an anti-theft device.

By contrast to the opportunistic joyrider, professional thieves either strip a car for parts or alter the vehicle identification number (VIN) and chassis number to avoid detection when the motor vehicle is sold.

To protect against this, drivers should have the VIN etched onto major glass components of the car and use an anti-theft device such as a steering wheel lock or fuel/ignition cut-out switch.

To see the figures for your station, click here.

Comment:  These articles fail to highlight the fact that compared to the general rates of crime the figures are relatively low.  Where ever there are concentrations of people there are problems.  It is time society itself became responsble for its actions rather than looking for scapegoats.  The problems lie with individuals who fail to respect others and social norms.

[longboi]

That old chestnut? I guess if you don't have anything good to write about - do an article on railway crime!

[#Metro]

OK, so it sounds recycled... but the figures change every year.
Fortitude Valley

Serious Assault 1
Common Assault 4
Vehicles (steal from/enter with intent) 1
Other Stealing 11
Possess Property Suspected Stolen 1
Drug Offences 13
Liquor (excl. Drunkenness) 1
Trespassing and Vagrancy 3
Weapons Act Offences 2
Good Order Offences 52
Miscellaneous Offences  1

Good old Fortitude Valley. 2 weapon's Act offences- yikes!
Is it QRs fault that their stations are magnets for such people?

[O_128]

I swear this is exactly the same article as last year. There is really nothing that can be done, Most of these stations have Security at night time.

[STB]

Ho hum...I have an inkling that this exact information was reported some months ago.  I think the news outlets call it 'filler material', or 'padding'.

In my experience, I lived on the Beenleigh line for over a year and travelled regularly at night with probably only 2 incidents on the train in that time.

I've witnessed only one assault at Fort Valley after many years of using that station and have never seen crimes committed at Roma Street (and if you did commit a crime there, you'd have to have very few brain cells operating as the police and TOs are only a hop step and jump away, plus there is staff and passengers there all the time who can see what is happening around them, and cameras left right and centre).

Cleveland line, where I've travelled on for about 15 years now, I've probably witnessed about 5 or 6 crimes along that line.  The locals even know which stations to 'avoid at night' which are, Murrarie, Wynnum Central and Birkdale.  Between those three stations though, I've seen more problems during the day than at night.

Overall, personally, I feel quite safe travelling by train.

[Mozz]

Well it seems there has been some of that journalism type thing happening and someone at brisbanetimes has realised they published the same figures from 12 months ago as suggested by STB.

Their reason and article here:

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/seq-train-crime-whats-changed-20100110-m0jo.html

SEQ train crime: what's changed
CONAL HANNA
January 11, 2010 - 5:23AM

On Friday brisbanetimes.com.au reported crime statistics across South-East Queensland's Citytrain network.

This story correctly cited the figures used as from the period July 2007-June 2008.

However, at the time we were working under the mistaken impression this was the most recent data available.

Late on Friday afternoon we were made aware of more recent statistics for the past financial year, 2008-09. We apologise for any confusion caused.

The good news is crime was down across South-East Queensland train stations: offences fell 12 per cent from 3704 in 2007-08 to 3268 in 2008-09.

-------------------------
UPDATE: Every crime, every station, 2008-2009
-------------------------

At Central Station, thieving continued to be a problem, with 39 stealing offences (up from 34), while good order offences (67, compared to 111) and drug offences (10 from 26) both fell.

However, assaults at the station more than doubled, from eight last year to 17, as part of a worrying trend across the network.

Elsewhere in the CBD, Roma Street recorded 10 assaults and Fortitude Valley, South Bank and South Brisbane eight each.

The northern suburbs also became increasingly violent at stations such as Toombul (9 assaults), Banyo (9), Northgate ( and Virginia (7).

The Gold Coast and Ipswich lines were still worst for car crimes with nine of the 10 most targeted stations.

But while Ipswich dominated the year before's list, it was three Gold Coast stations - Ormeau (14), Robina (14) and Helensvale (13) - that were worst off this time around.

Loganlea (9) and Nerang (9) also made the top 10, while from the Ipswich line, Bundamba (11), East Ipswich (11), Dinmore (9) and Wacol (9) were all there. Ebbw Vale, which was last year's worst station with 21 offences, only recorded seven in 2008-09.

Caboolture (11) entered the top 10 for car crime as part of a general increase in crime at that station that saw it record 63 'good order' offences, covering charges such as public nuisance or disturbing the peace, up 142 per cent from the year before.

Ipswich became the worst behaved station in this regard with 71 good order offences (up from 40), which saw it outrank larger CBD stations Central (67), South Bank (46) Fortitude Valley (45) and Roma Street (38).

In Northgate, good order offences nearly tripled from 18 to 50.  In contrast, Beenleigh was down from 66 to 38.

Clayfield and Nundah replaced Mitchelton and Keperra as the worst areas for vandalism, with 47 property damage offences each, across the stations and nearby lines.

[ozbob]

From the Northside Chronicle 13th january 2010 page 5

Our rail crime  spots