{"id":171943,"date":"2017-03-08T17:36:00","date_gmt":"2017-03-08T07:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?p=171943"},"modified":"2020-09-21T16:58:02","modified_gmt":"2020-09-21T06:58:02","slug":"police-offer-advice-on-crime-wave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2017\/03\/08\/police-offer-advice-on-crime-wave\/","title":{"rendered":"Police Offer Advice On ‘Crime Wave’"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Murgon officer-in-charge Senior Sergeant Lance Guteridge<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

March 8, 2017<\/strong><\/p>\n

Crime in Murgon is a problem that stretches back more than a century, Senior Sergeant Lance Guteridge told the Murgon Business and Development Association’s most recent meeting.<\/p>\n

But claims the town was facing a crime wave might be exaggerated – domestic violence was the biggest issue that Murgon police have to deal with, followed by juvenile car thefts and break-ins.<\/p>\n

Snr Sgt Guteridge said he had seen police reports from 1910 saying intoxication was a problem in Murgon, and that hadn’t changed very much in the past 100 years.<\/p>\n

“We have two parts to our community,” Snr Sgt Guteridge told the meeting.<\/p>\n

“A farming community with a strong work ethic, and a dysfunctional town community where some people suffer deeply embedded issues with alcohol.”<\/p>\n

But statistics showed the level of crime in Murgon was not all that different from other South Burnett towns.<\/p>\n

Turning to court appearances, Snr Sgt Guteridge said the courts treated offenders differently to the way they once did, and no longer believe incarceration was always the answer.<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Modern society has eroded the rights of the police and parents,” he said.<\/p>\n

“But the Criminal Code still allows the disciplining of disruptive children.”<\/p>\n

Snr Sgt Guteridge said police would always request bail conditions at court if an offender was not remanded in custody.<\/p>\n

Conditions could restrict movement during certain hours of the day\/night, and if they were not met, bail would be revoked. That would mean another Court appearance which would likely result in custody in those circumstances.<\/p>\n

But first offenders generally received a caution, and in 85 per cent of cases never repeated an offence.<\/p>\n

Youth Justice Conferencing – where the offender was brought face-to-face with the victim – had also proven effective in reducing crime.<\/p>\n

However, detention was generally a last resort because there was evidence it didn’t change long-term behaviors.<\/p>\n

Snr Sgt Guteridge said the best thing he could advise residents concerned about crime to do was lock their doors and hide their car keys.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The reason for hiding keys was that modern cars are harder to steal, so some car thieves were now breaking into homes looking for keys so they could take a vehicle.<\/p>\n

Snr Sgt Guteridge said all residents had a right to defend themselves and their property with reasonable force. He noted that rural areas were not being targeted; most of Murgon’s crime was restricted to the town.<\/p>\n

He said Murgon has three police officers on duty at night – one at the watchhouse and the other two in a patrol car, which has to service both Murgon and Cherbourg after 10:00pm.<\/p>\n

He said residents who needed police help at night should call 000 instead of the station number.<\/p>\n

“This will divert your call straight to the car, and if they are not on anything more serious they can attend quickly,” Snr Sgt Guteridge said.<\/p>\n

Speaking more broadly, Snr Sgt Guteridge advised residents concerned about crime to secure all their possessions and report anything that didn’t look normal – especially whistling at night, which was used as a form of communication by some thieves.<\/p>\n

Good lighting was also a great deterrent.<\/p>\n

They could also join Murgon’s Neighbourhood Watch, which meets every two months at Murgon’s police station, for regular updates on local crime issues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Crime in Murgon is a problem that stretches back more than a century, Senior Sergeant Lance Guteridge told the Murgon Business and Development Association’s most recent meeting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":270869,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,24],"tags":[28,1132],"yoast_head":"\nPolice Offer Advice On 'Crime Wave' - southburnett.com.au<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Crime in Murgon is a problem that stretches back more than a century, Senior Sergeant Lance Guteridge told the Murgon Business and Development Association.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2017\/03\/08\/police-offer-advice-on-crime-wave\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Police Offer Advice On 'Crime Wave' - 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