A state government crackdown will help put the brakes on hooning in Logan.
The government has announced new anti-hooning cameras for the city in an effort to catch dangerous drivers in real time.
The $6 million dollar project hitting Logan, Moreton and Townsville, involves trailers fitted with high-quality cameras and number-plate recognition to detect stolen vehicles.
To start, each district will receive one trailer.
The move follows the state government’s recent changes to hooning legislation, making Queensland the toughest state on reckless driving.
As part of the changes, onus now falls on the owner of a vehicle caught hooning to prove they weren’t the driver.
Additionally, it is now an offence to participate in or be a spectator at a group hooning event; organise, promote or encourage others to participate a hooning event; and possess items such as false number plates.
A Queensland Police Service (QPS) spokesperson told MyCity Logan why Logan was a chosen to test the camera.
“Logan was identified as an appropriate trial area based on a number of organised mass gathering events over the last few years which caused significant community concern,” the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson suggested one of the mass gatherings was a recent hooning event in Greenbank that saw 40 people arrested.
The March event entailed 47 charges, including 11 alleged drink-drivers, 9 alleged drug-drivers and 27 alleged unlicenced drivers, and 262 traffic infringements, including 29 for defective vehicles.
This is one of many hooning events intercepted by police as part of what they have called: ‘Operation Victor Kamino’.
Operation Victor Kamino has so far resulted in the impoundment of four vehicles, three number-plate confiscations and three people charged with dangerous operation of a motor vehicle.
The QPS assistant commissioner, Chris Stream, said members of the community should work with the police to put an end to hooning.
“The anti-hoon trailers are one of several overt and covert strategies police across the state are employing to target hooning and in particular large-scale hooning events,” he said.
“Police will continue to conduct a variety of intelligence-driven enforcement patrols while also undertaking operations using the high-definition camera trailers.”
QPS refused to say when the trial period ends but said more cameras would be built depending on the outcome of the trial.
