The crowd listens to Assistant Police Commissioner Andy Henderson and Wynnum District Superintendent Jim Keogh at the Dunwich meeting. Photo: Judith Kerr
Wynnum District Superintendent Jim Keogh, front, with Assistant Commissioner Andy Henderson both promised to work with the community to clamp down on serious crime on North Stradbroke Island. Photo: Judith Kerr
A COMMUNITY safety group will be formed to help clean up crime on North Stradbroke Island.
Assistant Police Commissioner Andy Henderson proposed the safety group at a meeting that attracted more than 350 people at Dunwich Community Hall on Friday night.
The meeting was called in May after a brawl broke out following a football match and before the Dunwich post office was torched last month.
Redland City mayor Karen Williams backed up the police proposal and so did the crowd with an informal "show of hands" vote.
"This committee will bring all departments together on a regular basis and all stakeholders in the community can have a representative there to raise issues and talk about solutions," she said.
Dunwich post office licensees Brian and Hetty Conlon, whose home and business were torched last month, were at the meeting.
They listened as speakers told how thugs roamed the island smashing shop windows, vandalising streets and terrorising Dunwich businesses.
Kate Evans, from Point Lookout, told the meeting police failed to act on her noise complaints and Dunwich baker Gloria Jones told how an apprentice was bashed after graffiti was sprayed across her business.
Amity Point businessman Gordon Dix said his business had been broken into and robbed five times, forcing him to go out and find the offenders after police ignored his calls for help.
Assistant Commissioner Henderson acknowledged there was a crime problem on the island, where there were seven police officers for 2000 people, compared with one police officer on Macleay Island, where there was a larger population.
But Wynnum District Superintendent Jim Keogh denied claims police failed to act on reported crimes and said his officers had done everything in their power to curb crime.
He said his officers knew drugs were being taken to the island via ferries but stopped short of saying sniffer dogs would be stationed at Toondah Harbour.
The crowd, which included elders Aunty Joan Hendriks and Uncle Norm Clarke, listened as Quandamooka man Darren Burns told of his family's heartache after his son "got into drugs" and was now "locked up" facing serious criminal charges.
Mr Burns questioned the powers of the proposed safety group because he did not think island elders and indigenous groups had been invited to join.
Cr Williams said the role of the safety group would be to design a co-ordinated approach to tackling crime, drugs and juvenile delinquency on the island.
She said police, Murri Court representatives, officials from state departments such as Justice, Communities and Indigenous Affairs, along with tourism and education experts, would be on the group.
Cleveland MP Mark Robinson said he had asked Police Minister Jack Dempsey for more police resources to address specific crime issues on the island.
It was likely the mayor or Councillor Craig Ogilvie, whose Division 2 covers Straddie, would chair the group, expected to forge links between police and various state government departments.