Children aged between 10 and 17 years have committed more than 10,600 crimes in Toowoomba over the past five years. 

Member for Toowoomba South David Janetzki MP obtained figures from the police minister last week which show the shocking increase in youth crime and the suburbs they have been targeting.

The number one hotspot Toowoomba City recorded 2,591 crimes committed by youths from 2019 to 2023. This has more than doubled from the 1,284 youth crimes recorded in five years prior. 

Newtown came in second with 1,243 youth crimes recorded while Harristown had the third highest number of youth crimes recorded at 806. 

Youth crims have set their sights on new suburbs to target as Kearney’s Spring and Rangeville have replaced Wilsonton and South Toowoomba in the top five hot spots. 

“Our community has been subjected to shocking crimes perpetrated by youths – relentless car thefts, violent home invasions, armed robberies, stabbings, and culminating in the death of Robert Brown outside Grand Central Shopping Centre,” Mr Janetzki said. 

“Pensioners have been mugged at ATMs, dragged out of their cars and beaten, and threatened with weapons inside their homes by teenagers with no regard for the law,” he said. 

“This generation of untouchables rush to post their crimes on social media, that is how certain they are, there will be no consequences for their actions.” 

The number of reported offences community by children aged 10 to 17 in the Toowoomba Police Division over the past five years were: 

• 2,095 offences in 2019
• 2,122 offences in 2020
• 2,053 offences in 2021
• 2,385 offences in 2022
• > 2,000 offences in 2023 
• > 10,655 offences in total 

The true number of crimes would be much higher due to unsolved offences. These figures are for youth crimes which have been solved and actioned by police through arrests, cautions, community conferences, notices to appear, summons and arrests.  

Mr Janetzki said the government needed to enforce real consequences for actions. 

“Police work tirelessly to catch youth offenders, now we need to unshackle the judiciary by removing detention as a last resort,” he said. 

Figures released April 2024

*Full list of suburbs, offences numbers and more information can be viewed at the Question on Notice Answer here: https://documents.parliament.qld.gov.au/tableoffice/questionsanswers/2024/169-2024.pdf

Figures released November 2019

*Full list of suburbs, offences numbers and more information can be viewed at the Question on Notice Answer here: https://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/documents/tableOffice/questionsAnswers/2019/1560-2019.pdf

https://www.qgso.qld.gov.au/issues/7856/crime-report-qld-2022-23.pdf