It's been a busy morning, we've had back-to-back meetings, so can I thank you all for being here, the Minister for Police and Community Safety, Admiral Jack Debson, Commissioner Desi, Ian Stewart, and we're here today to talk about the crime stats. The Minister will start off, I'll make a few comments. We'll go to Ian and we've got a display that Ian will speak to as well, and then after we've said our few words, showing you the display, we're happy to take questions. Minister, thank you again. Thanks Commissioner, and I'll obviously again like to welcome everyone here this morning. This morning obviously is the tabling of the statistical analysis review for 2011-2012, that annual statistical review has been tabled in Parliament today, but also we will also be announcing the 15 years of police statistics that will now become available online, and that is all part of the Government's open and accountable new procedures in relation to releasing data out into the community. This is only the first step in ensuring that data is available to the community, and obviously that we get that feedback from the community. So I'd just like to pass to the Commissioner for his opening statements in relation to the service review. Thanks Minister. Unfortunately this year it's not good news, crime in terms of property crime is up by six percent. Property crime is the crime that relates to basically theft. So it's things like the theft of motor vehicles which is showing the greatest increase in breaking into people's homes and businesses which is showing the next highest increase. We think there's a link between those two. One of the really disturbing trends that's emerged in recent years is that because motor vehicles have become so hard now to hotwire, in fact it's almost impossible to do that. Some years ago it was quite easy really to start a vehicle without the keys. It's almost impossible to do that now. The disturbing trend is that people, criminals, are breaking into people's homes to steal the car keys and then stealing the car. So there's a break and enter of the house and then the theft of the vehicle. And it's a terrible thing to have to ask but we're asking people to actually hide their car keys, to hide their car keys in their own homes. But that's a really disturbing trend for us. Offences against the person are up by two percent and they relate to all offences that relate to any form of violence. And what we call other offences are also up by two percent. But that's police generated activity, that's things like public disorder, those sorts of things. So I don't think that that is of any concern. As you'll see later, crime generally has come down in Queensland in the last 12 to 15 years, particularly the last 12 years. Overall the rates of crime are still down. But this is a disappointing development this year. It's one that we're concerned about. And I know the Police Department under Institute's leadership will do all it can to turn this trend around. The first three months of this statistical year as you know, the crime figures statistical year are the same as the financial year so it's from June to July each year. The first three months of this statistical year so far are showing some improvement. But it's far too early to call and we acknowledge as well that those first three months which are July, August and September are the cooler months of the year and crime tends to be down in the cooler months and increase, you know, in the warmer months. So it's too early to say. But we are pleased that there is some improvement showing in those first three months. Can I just say this as well and please don't under any circumstances think that we're not concerned about this and we're not going to do all we can to pull it back. But for ten years in a row people in the Queensland Police Department were able to reduce crime. And that was a pretty good effort in my view. I wish I could say to you and I'm sure Ian would as well that every year will reduce crime for the Queensland community. The reality of that would be that one day there would be no crime. If every year we could reduce breaking and entering offences, one day there wouldn't be any. So we know that's not viable but please don't think on our part that that's a cop out or that we're easing up, we're not. But somewhere in there is obviously a balance. We'll get harder and harder to reduce crime. So probably that's all I need to say at the moment but happy to stay here as long as you wish. Answer questions today about this or any other topic and if need be follow up in due course. Thank you Minister and could I hand now to Ian who'll make some comments but then also introduce you to what we're releasing today for the public. Thanks Commissioner and thanks Minister. Good morning everyone.  Thank you everyone and thank you Commissioner, thank you Minister. I'd just like to comment on the other offences category which is increased as the commissioner said by 6% in the last statistical year and as the commissioner rightly said other offences often are an indication of the effort of your police department and in particular I'd like to identify the drug offences have risen by 10% and good order offences by 6% and they've contributed to that increase. Most of that work shows the efforts of our police getting out and identifying and arresting people for those particular offences. So in one way whilst any increase of crime is not in terms of the statistical nature of crime is not a good look. In this category certainly as a demonstration of how committed our people are your police department is to attacking these very serious problems in our community. Certainly again as the commissioner said overall we're seeing a bouncing crime and in those categories of property crime and personal crime we're seeing that slight increase. I'll be focusing on that and part of my mantra to all police officers will be to stop crime and with the assistance of the government giving us the extra police officers the return of further police officers from behind desks onto the street I'm certainly confident that we'll be able to attack crime directly with that focus over the next few years. Very happy to take any questions from any of you. It was up slightly last year but it was very very slight. Some areas were up last year but introduction you said it fell 3% in last year's statistical review. Some areas were up slightly last year but for ten years in a row prior to last year we had reductions and my point was simply that and I'd again please don't think in any way we're not concerned about this and we'll do what we can but my point was simply that if we had reductions in crime every year then one day there would be no crime. Can I say that that's a really good question there are two skills of thought about that one is that if the economy is troubled and people are unemployed the crime will go up that seems to be the common wisdom and the common thinking and it may well be true. There's another view that that's not necessarily so and these are from people who do the research this isn't Bob Atkinson's view and that other view is that if people don't have an income and they're on unemployment benefits then they haven't got anything at home really worth stealing and you can see the logic and sense in that argument as well so the jury is probably still out but on balance the view is I would think that when things are tough economically and people are unemployed then that can contribute to an increase in crime but there are two skills of thought about that. Yeah well harm robberies traditionally in the south east region which takes in Logan, Coomer and the Gold Coast arm robberies traditionally have tended to be higher than elsewhere but that's a really interesting point when you look at the rates of crime across the state the Gold Coast is by no means up there when you look at all categories of crime sadly the rates of crime in terms of violence are highest in the far north of the state and the tragedy of that of course is linked to in many cases indigenous communities so the two figures are the raw figures the actual numbers and then the rates probably the rates are a more important measure I mean for example with the road toll the best measure is the rate that's the number of people killed each year per hundred thousand in 1973 in Queensland that was 32, 32 deaths per hundred thousand in 2010 it was 5.5 you know what a dramatic change that was so I think rates are probably the best measure Will you allocate any more resources to the south eastern district given that you know there has been the most dramatic increase there with arm robberies and breakings? The government have given us 1100 extra police over the next four years which we are very very grateful for and the first 300 of those 300, one third have been committed to the south east region 10 already to expand the serious and violent crime squad which is renamed to the major and organised crime squad to take it from 20 to 30 and Mr Stewart will, Ian will work on the distribution of the other 90 in the south east region in company with the minister and they'll probably announce that fairly soon but a hundred extra are going to the south east region in recognition of that point that you just made I know you said that a lot of people breaking into homes getting keys we've seen a lot of chases in the past do you think that is linked that some criminals are getting into their minds with the pursuit policy that they won't be targeted by police like that? That's a good question you couldn't rule that out as a possibility but I couldn't say definitively that that is the reason, most of the vehicles are recovered which is a good thing, some of course are not and they're used in what's called rebirthing, they tend to be the more expensive vehicles and they tend to disappear very quickly into the state and are reconstructed you know, the usual thing there is a wreck is claimed to have been restored but a stolen vehicle is actually used in that space as part of that and of course some stolen vehicles as we have seen are used for Ram raids and other criminal activity and some are used simply for jewellery so it's a good question but I don't think we've got a clear answer to it as yet as to whether it's linked I would hope that the increase in the theft of vehicles is not linked to the pursuit policy because that's such an important issue in our view, we understand the frustration of everyone associated with that but ultimately you know we just don't want someone killed when they drive through a green light at night time and a stolen vehicle at high speed goes through the red light and hits them and kills them in a difficult and complex area but we think that public safety overrides the value of a stolen car and that's right, a stealing offence in no way is measurable against a death of a person on the road whether it be the offender or the police officers or the members of the community and that's why we've also introduced those evade police laws and we're now 5,500 for a license and two years loss of license because from the research that we actually got was that by having those stiffer penalties there was an impact on those people setting in their minds beforehand to not even go and commission and go that type of offence so we continue to work on that and we've also got the review early next year in relation to pursuit policies as well. That's right, the new policy has only been in existence for, well not one year, it came into existence on the 19th of December last year so as the minister indicated after its first 12 months of operation there'll be a review after the 19th of December. What is really interesting now about that is that nationally there are different pursuit policies in the various jurisdictions but the phenomenon that we're seeing with unlawful use of motor vehicles particularly where people break in steel keys and take the car, that's a national problem and I think you can actually see there's a divergence of the argument. First to clarify, do evade police offences fall under unlawful use or do they fall under other traffic offences? They'd be under a separate category, they wouldn't be under unlawful use. Can I come back to you on that? I would have hoped they might be into their own category but how concerned are you about the number of refigures? You seem to be getting back to the rates almost a decade ago, any plan to do with that? I'm concerned obviously and certainly particularly concerned although one thing we believe is stable and that's the involvement of firearms in armed robberies and that tends to fluctuate between about 12% and about 20% in other words even if it's maximum 20% of armed robberies with the weapon of choice is a firearm. So around one fifth but no very concerned and I think in recent times our people have had a very good track record in apprehending people but I think it's one of the most significant crimes on the book. I mean the trauma for the victims is just, I mean it's a terrible thing if your home is broken into, but the trauma of people who are confronted by someone with a knife or a firearm or a syringe or whatever the weapon might be is quite significant but having said that from where we were 12 years ago there are less armed robberies today than there were then so we just ask obviously that we try to keep things in balance and perspective It's not out of control I guess that's what I'm trying to say. Is there any change in the firearm trend over the past 12 months? Look I don't think so but can I come back to you specifically on that question but it tends to be that it's around 12 to 20 and admittedly the Gold Coast is up in the higher bracket so you know in terms of the years of firearms the Gold Coast is running around 19% for the years of firearms or other places in the state it's down as low as 12% for the years of firearms and armed robberies but can I just come back to you on that specific that's a degree of detail I just don't want to comment on that I'm absolutely sure about. Can I also mention up on the screen here in front of you what you're seeing is a range of crime classes that we've put on our police blog site that's actually armed robbery and it gives you the offence rates going right back to the 2000s and into the 1990s so this is available publicly it's available right now and you can go on and I can show you for instance if we move to homicide it's simply a click of the mouse and two clicks of the mouse and that shows you the overall rates for homicide over that same period. All of those crime classes you can see at the bottom you can either aggregate it so you can take the whole lot or you can just have single crime classes and show up the graphs that are available right today. Even though you've seen this overall increase are Queensland Police on top of crime overall? Absolutely and it's not out of control but having said that there is still far too much crime, far too much crime. I mean 12 years ago in Queensland there were 11,000 vehicles being stolen each year and we got that down to about 9,000 with their best result a couple of years ago and that's bounce back up now to around 11,000. It's still far too many. So you know whilst I think people in the police department have done a good job and we're grateful for the support of the media and the community in that space because most crime is solved because the media give the public information about crime and the public give the police information about crime and as a result of that public information the crimes are solved. That trilogy of the media, the public and the police working together is a very good thing but you know I think there's still significant room for improvement I really do. I think there's just you know still far too much and I didn't want you to think and I'm sure I hope you wouldn't by my saying realistically if you reduce crime every year which would be lovely one day there'd be no crime and maybe we could at least frankly that's not going to happen but what we needed to get it is to get it down to the lowest level that is possible for Queensland and I don't think whether you This is the last of those statistics on your watch I suppose how disappointing is it for you personally to see that it's gone up by 6% in your final year? That's a good question. It is disappointing but we're all disappointed. We're all disappointed. Our goal every year is to do two things reduce crime and increase clear up rates. So more people get caught but there's less crime. That's our goal, that's our ultimate goal and of course you know in terms of crime going up well that's not what we want to see we want to see it going in the other direction. All I was trying to do was introduce the debate that and I don't, the good work in the police department is not done by Bob Atkinson, the good work in the police department is done by the 15,000 people who work in the police department and they've achieved some wonderful results in the last decade they really have. I'm sorry? Oh no, I'm very supportive of it. I think it's a really good move. I'm very, and I'm not politically aligned. I hope you would believe that and know that but I think that the proposed, the three dimensions, I think the gun violence is sensible because that gives people a chance to hand in the firearms before the tougher laws come into place. I also have no problem at all with this red tape for legal firearms owners to make life simpler for them particularly when they renew their licenses. I think if we can do that that's a good thing and I'm really grateful though to the minister and the government because the minister has led this for bringing in proposed tougher laws and the one that I'm particularly grateful for is the proposal that basically it's as simple as this in my view. If you're a criminal and you're in a public place with a gun you're going to go to jail and to me that's a really, really good thing. Just to clarify that it's an amnesty period, it's not a buyback system and the other side of that, even that will continue, people still, is still in the act will still be able to, if they find grandmas or grandpas, fire them in the cupboard, they'll still be able to bring that into a station or notify a police officer. That's always been in there as well but this is a particular three month period that will come in for the change of the Weapon Act. The amnesty? Well we won't know until we see and it's certainly worth doing. It's a little bit unpredictable but I think it's a really good thing to do particularly with the tougher legislation coming in so that people are given this chance to hand over the firearms that they may have in their position without any risk of any penalty. Gia, you may have got that figure down. Are you that you'll be able to do that? I and the rest of the department will be working very hard to drive those figures down and as I said one of the mantras that I'll be using throughout my time as the commissioner is for our people to stop crime because I do believe, I honestly believe there are ways that we can do that, targeting recidivist offenders, having more police out there on the front line, targeting, using intelligence based information to target hot spots, all of those things will come into play but if I could just go back to the firearm issue having our people certainly asking the public who do have legal firearms to make sure that they are secure at all times is a critical factor in the fight against crime and I know the minister has raised this on many occasions asking people who legally do have possession of firearms, licensed firearms, that they're locked away where they need to be because unfortunately the criminals target people who are legal firearm owners and having the amnesty for the three month period again, what that does is reduces the risk that firearms that are out there perhaps without licenses, you know it might be an antique firearm or a firearm handed down to a family, no one's ever bothered to get a license. If that comes off the street and goes, comes into our possession and ultimately is destroyed or disposed of, it actually takes away the potential that that firearm will fall into the hands of the offenders that crooks out there who prey on those sorts of offences. Mr. Stuart, with the clearance rates they seem to be holding steady for both assaults and off offencing as the person and property. You've mentioned a review previously of the White Police work do you want to do something about that? Absolutely, in fact there's recent evidence from a research report that was done in England to say that if police skills are increased slightly so that you clear up is greater, then that combined with truce in sentencing, so slightly longer sentences for very hard nosed crooks, that has an immediate impact on the crime rate. So we will be looking at those sorts of things and looking at the skimming of our own people right across the board. Even when you look at the assaults on police, you know we're looking in one, you'll probably see in one period there, in the five year period is approximately about 13,500 assaults on police, so one in four police officers are getting assaulted, so that's part of basically improving the standards right from the academy or from the police perspective, but also from a Queensland perspective is that's why we introduced a serious assaults on police from seven to 14 years, and obviously the killing of the police officer from a 25 year comparable offence, because that's what we're finding is we've got obviously while having more police out there, giving them resources reducing the red tape and paperwork they have to do, we've also got to make sure that we have penalties that meet community expectations as well, and there's a number of factors there that we're working on. How concerning is it with the level of crime up there at the moment, it seems to be a lot of young people getting caught in the last two operations there? It's huge concern to us, in Cairns and Townsville, and there are you know crime has gone up in both cities, particularly Cairns and regrettably the primary offenders are young males, some as young as 10, between 10 and 20, and it's a huge, huge concern to us we're doing all we can in that space, I wish I could say to you we could fix it tomorrow, but it's a real issue, and I'm very concerned about it, and again the linkage with theft of vehicles, and then that adds to the risk on the roads as well, for people as well with reckless driving, but no, it's quite rightly identified as a major issue for us. First time in that decade that the rise in these rates have been so significant, you said that there were slight increases in last year? Well in my view, yes, this is the first time, in fact perhaps even slightly over a decade, perhaps closer to 12 years, where we've seen a jump and a spike like this, and what's really important is that we try and contain that, at the very least, that it doesn't replicate again next year. How much was the overall increased last financial year then? Well it was at less, significantly less than it is this year, and again that's in the figures, can we come back here with a precise detail on that, because we have a lot of detail here, and there's numerous categories of crime, the two that are up the most are car theft and break and enters, arson's up as well, but those two are the greatest, not that arson isn't concerned to us, but car theft and break and enters. The overall crime rate, is this the first time it's gone up in the past 10 years as well, or how's the overall crime rate? It's up by 6%, property crime is up by 6%, and the overall crime rate is up by 6%, but over the, I think it's the 10 year period, it's still down overall, okay? So it's a blip, but overall in the last decade crime is down by 17, well yeah, 17% overall, does that make sense? But I guess when was the last time it actually did go up, when was the last blip? Yeah, I'd have to go back, I'd have to take that question I noticed, because what was happening was this, there was a view in the police department that as the population of Queensland increased, and it was increasing by around 2% to 3% each year, the crime would go up with that population increase. Back in about the year 2000, 2001 we set out to challenge that thinking, and we introduced a process called operational performance review, and we think that increased effort and emphasis changed the thinking in that space, and crime started to come down. So it's achievable, but there's no magic wand or no magic solution, there are a lot of factors with crime, one was touched on today, the economy and people's employment, another that's been touched on is we're part of the judicial process, Ian mentioned sentencing and I think that's valid, another thing is he also mentioned repeat offenders and that's very relevant for us, because if in a given week in any town, a major town, 100 homes are broken into, that's not 100 separate people doing that, that's a small number of people doing it a lot of times, and when those people are remanded and remanded and remanded and remanded and continue to commit offences, that just makes it more difficult for us, so what we would ask you as well is to look at this holistically and recognise, no copy out on our part, we'll do a weekend, but we're part of, we're part of a bigger picture, and clearly with a lot of the robberies everyone knows except they're drug related, so drug use contributes to armed robberies in any form of robbery. I think that's far too early to call, far too early to call and it's not something that I'd be qualified to comment on. We tend to, both Ian and I, tend to stay within the police department, our job is to run the police department, so we tend not to comment on the courts. And we've never ever, we've never ever, that's right, but we've never ever criticised the judiciary, ever. What we're saying is that we're part of the process and that Ian has said it and I share his view that recidivist offenders, repeat offenders, are people committing an enormous amount of crime, if we can do something about those people, and if that means them staying in custody, well, then save a year then I think that we can improve the situation from where we are now. My point was simply that, you know, we haven't got thousands of people and thousands of people committing one crime each day, but what we've usually got is small numbers, relatively small numbers of people in any given town, whether it's Cairns or Townsville, committing a lot of crime. What sort of challenges do young offenders pose to you, given that it looks like there's a number of offenders in the 10 to 14 year age group as well, again? It is, it is, because what needs to happen in that space, if it's at all possible, is a change in that behaviour and in some cases what that means is, and sadly with some of these young people, there's simply no value at all of the worth of education and a job. Those values don't exist.   And at a cost of $60,000 a year to the state, you know, to keep them in there. Yeah, parents, parents, the people responsible for the upbringing of that child. That's a really good question. I've seen families, one in particular that I will never forget. They had six children and they, to my mind, were wonderful parents.  The other five kids all went to school, university and got good jobs. And yet this young fellow, he was just, you know, just terrible. Now, I don't know, maybe there's some, you know, genetic issue for him.  And in the main, yeah, it's parents, it's those who have the responsibility of nurturing that child and providing that child with values. Look, I know for, as a father of five myself, it is obviously, as the commissioner alluded to, we all have different children within our family make. And I think we get, it's a tendency where we push a lot of responsibilities whether it be back on to education, on to police, on to other community service groups, and what we're finding is that seems to be a common trend around the whole of Australia, let alone the world. So it's about people taking responsibilities. But it's also for us, as a government, that's why we're introducing boot camps. We're looking at bail conditions, and we're getting briefs off the QPS and the Attorney General to look at those types of aspects. But to make sure that there is, you know, there's obviously rights and responsibilities and that's quite a balance in there. But, you know, 99% of young children in Queensland are doing the right thing but we have a, you might have a one particular offender that is causing a significant amount of crime in a particular area. So we're looking at ways to get to those young people as early as possible. And that's why, you know, as a government it's not just a police response. Sometimes it's education. Sometimes it's a social issue. It may be a housing issue with parents and extended family as well. So it is an issue. But from the Queensland police perspective, we're doing all that we can. We have also, as far as even the schools, we've put an extra 15 school-based police officers into our high schools. We're making sure that every school in Queensland will have an adopt a cop for the first time. So a person from each station will be assigned to every primary school within their division. So, you know, with PCYCs, we see them extending. So from a police perspective, it's about what we can do for the whole of the child as well, but also targeting those particular individuals and getting to them as early as possible. Anything else that you think has contributed to it? I think between us all here, we've probably touched on some of the prominent things and we did discuss the economic situation, people's financial hardship as a potential contributor. We've talked about drugs and without question, drugs are a primary motivator for crime, in particular, you know, robberies, where people are clearly quite desperate in terms of their behaviour. In some cases, where the theft of vehicles involves joyriding, well, it's just a phenomena all of its own. And we've talked about, you know, values generally, and I mean, criminality has probably been with us since time began and people's greed and motivation in terms of criminal behaviour has been something that's with us for a long time. Can I just endorse the Minister's comment though? I wouldn't want anyone to think and I hope you wouldn't that we're saying we're being critical of young people. I share the Minister's view. I think our young people today, throughout Queensland, are quite outstanding. I was privileged recently to be the guest speaker at this high school speech tonight. Great school, great young people, great teachers, but as the Minister said, we're talking about a very, very, very tiny small percentage of young people, but what they do and are doing is committing a disproportionate amount of crime. Your think the overall crime rate has seen its first significant increase in about 10 years? Yes. One of the questions I was asked earlier was, when did we last have a jump like that? Back in my view in the 90s, but we'd have to research that and pull it out. And that statistical review, that's for the last financial year, so obviously it's from June 2011, sorry, July 2011 to the end of June this year. That's correct. I would think a good 12 years. Introduction last year to the statistical review, because it explains the 3% decrease in the state's overall crime rate. Yeah, but there were some jumps last year. Prior to last year, I mean that's a good result, but prior to last year, pretty much just about every category was going down. Now I might stand corrected on this, but I think there might have been a slight increase in car theft last year. All I'm saying is that last year wasn't as good a result as we had the years before and that this year is the worst result. But nonetheless we'd ask that people keep it in the context of saying that overall, and some of those slides indicate that overall the trend is good. Overall the trend is good. And there's been some good results. And we are very mindful of the fact that we're not saying to you that we're not concerned about this. We are and we'll do all we possibly can to redress it. And that's why we were particularly focused on the first three months of this statistical year. Whilst there's a long way to go, there's still another nine months. The trend in the first three months is looking better than it has been for the previous 12. I shall ask what will be your priority as soon as you get into the new role? There's probably got a hundred of them. Ready to start. Absolutely. But the reality is I've said it and I've said it a hundred times here today. Stopping crime will be a mantra. Certainly there are a range of reviews already underway into how the Police Department operates. Now there's no criticism of the past. We've had wonderful stability and leadership for a long period of time. But the Premier and the Minister have asked us to look very carefully at how we can, are there ways that we can improve the service delivery to the community. And I think it's self-evident. Anyone who reads that document that you've got with you right now will see the variations in crime across this state. And again next year you'll see further variations. My point is simply this the way that we operate in terms of hotspotting I think you'll see greater agility over the next couple of years with task force operations where we can actually follow the leader that the government's already put in place where we've put a surge into Cairns, we've put a surge at the Gold Coast you'll see a lot more of that tight style of policing where we have a problem we'll pick up a specialist groups of police and put them into those areas to attack crime at the roots. Both from the proactive approach, so the intelligence-led approach and then the response approach where people bring us up and they've had a crime committed. We'll be targeting all of those things to try and drop crime. Again all of the charts that you're seeing up there on the board, they've been great results over the last 10 years. I want to actually try and drive that trend line, continue to have that trend line going down over the next few years. Look we've got some wonderful models already in place Logan District if I can just single them out, not because of the crime that's committed there but rather the way that the police operate there, they have some very good strategies and tactics, operational tactics that actually go after recidivist offenders all the time and it works very very well for us. So I'm hoping that those learnings, we can repeat those learnings using that surge type mentality or task force mentality when we have a hot spot occurring. Which offence is actually the breaking enter, is it unlawful entry or is it public there? Yeah and that's when you see that the peak there and the peak in the unlawful use and the type of offence that a lot of those ones are matched in together in relation to as the commissioner said the people are not, the modern vehicles are a lot harder to get into and we've seen this brazing, this increase of people entering into dwellings, getting the keys and that's why we've started an educational program, we've been pushing that out quite significantly for people to secure their keys, to think of their keys as an item, as a $20,000, $30,000 item and securing it properly within their residence to stop that opportunist as well. Can we just bring up unlawful entry? We didn't say it was entirely due to that, we said that without questions contributed, but some people still leave their keys in the car and some of the cars that are stolen are older vehicles that are still easy to steal in some cases ridiculously easy to steal and this is all breaking in, this is people's homes, flats, units, shops, businesses, this is the total of unlawful entry offences and if my memory serves me correctly when we started the operational performance review process in Queensland there were around 73,000 broken into statewide and that's down now to around 45, 46,000 so even though it's come up a little bit, but again there's no room for complacency and it's an awful thing for people, it's a terrible thing when they come home and their homes are broken into and one of the worst things about that and we see this over and over is where sentimental jewellery that might have been grandmothers or something like that is stolen and whilst the monetary value of it might be $500 the sentimental personal value is priceless so you don't think in any sense we're minimising the impact on people's lives. Minister on another issue, is there an update on the review of the rural fire service jobs? Look obviously Ted Malone started the rural fire service review, that review is going to be ongoing until what's predominantly the end of the fire season in March this year Ted Malone, I spoke to him only yesterday and he was out at Green Bank and Springfield looking at the actual on the ground operations because that was a large operations there yesterday so what we're particularly looking at is there is the function the leadership, the structure and also the financial funding for the rural fires in the future so we'll continue with that through that whole period and that committee there's representatives from the Queensland rural fire brigade association, the rural fire brigade, the urban fire brigade as well as a couple of particular scientific people in relation to the effects of bushfires generally throughout the whole of the state and that's what we're looking at is not just a while we're doing obviously a review with Ted Malone we're also looking at the wider picture in relation to the history of bushfires within Queensland as well and how it has affected the land and there's a number of different scientific opinions in relation to that to how we can benefit that not just from the Queensland fire and rescue service but also in relation to national parks in relation to the environmental department in relation to agriculture as well as how we respond from the Queensland fire and rescue service So no decision for a few more months? Until the reviews completed then they're going to 15 other locations and getting feedback throughout the whole of the state in relation to how that structure will be coming here No the number of commissioned officers has stayed the same it's around 4% of the organisation which is pretty similar to what it is throughout Australia people will retire and be replaced but the number's fairly stable I'm happy to follow up on that if you wish but I don't believe there has been a significant increase in the number of commissioned officers Yeah I'll come back to you on that one Robin to my mind there's around 400 commissioned officers statewide and in a 12 month period I can't believe it it's gone up by 44 if that's what it says here I'll come back to you on that but might be just a question of interpretation of the figures but you've got to be right can we talk about that afterwards if that's alright and I think the reporter might have gone but it's just interesting if I could go back to the comment when you look at the figures as I have them in detail it would seem as though car thefts up by a couple of thousand and break and then by about the same amount so we'll do some more research on that in terms of looking at just how many of those increased break and enters resulted in the keys of the vehicle being stolen, the vehicle being stolen in that regard that'll take a little while as will some of those other questions we might take a couple of days to look at the percentage of firearms and the other one was when did we last have a jump of 6% in property crime and overall crime and that could take us a couple of days to find that information with your question in relation to the robbery in particular there was 1,813 of which 845 were not no weapons were used 462 were for knife I'm happy to give you this to you at the end of it the club was 33 in glass so whilst the classification of a robbery it doesn't necessitate an actual firearm there's a broad way of causing fear to facilitate a type of robbery and whilst any robbery is certainly we certainly don't condone and we'll make sure that we do the most to reduce that there is the people becoming more brazen in relation to the type of actually item of their usage and it seems to be a lot of it is an opportunist ones where we've seen other robberies where they've actually picked something up on entering and coming into the actual facility happy to do that thank you for your time what we're trying to do is to give some indication of the trends in relation to a whole range of the crime classes James I wonder if you just go up to the police blog site it's there this is my police data blog site and certainly that crime I mean you can drive it yourself people can go online onto that site simply click on the crime class and or several crime classes as we see there and you'll see the comparative data in the trend lines I think we are from getting something to what they have in the UK the public can get online and narrow down street by street look there's a whole range of issues that relate to that but the government is very very keen on us getting as much data out there to the public as possible and there's very good reason for that and that is that I and the commissioner touched on this before if someone was to see that there was a crime in their area they may actually have some information so that might job their memory about oh I saw a car acting suspiciously and I took a registered number down but I didn't think it but yes I looked online I saw that there was a crime in the area during that week that might have some bearing on it so there's some very good reason for that the other the other thing the other real benefit of having data online is that we we get lots and lots of research requests for data once we go live with that it will allow researchers from across the world to actually look at the data and use that and analyse it and perhaps provide information for us on issues pertaining to that particular crime hotspot yeah this is only the first step in relation to that open data and transparency as well and as the commissioner designated also alluded to is when you see the reported crime often you don't get what the clear up of that crime is in particular area so reduces that fear of crime if you have a break and it's someone to know that it's that offender has actually been caught and it helps ease that perception but also what the beauty about having more data out there it engages the community because at the end of the day police are as good as the information they receive and being open and putting more data out there avails to the open community that there is nothing to hide that you've got all the information you feed it back nuts and bolts back to the police service so it's about getting information from the whole of the community back in a timely manner so that also police are able to be able to when they're doing their resources to be able to align those resources to those particular issues in a more timely manner because as we talk of that's why we've introduced increased funds to crime stoppers and neighbourhood watch the my police blogs we've done six of them so far they're going out through the whole state and that has been a phenomenal response in relation to people actually wanting to get off of those particular sites because they're identified because that's linked into other social networks that people are coming in for minor offences and giving themselves up so it really is a great source and as far as that whole technology advancements within the QPS and mobile data it's very exciting and I'm looking forward to the year we're not talking in years so we're working on that currently but what we want to make sure is that we have as much information as possible and we want to make sure that we get it right and that we don't have to keep coming backwards I don't know if it will be six months but this is our toe in the water and we'll be rolling out as the systems come online as they are proven to be accurate and the other side of it is we think that they will be very well used by the public and researchers so we have to make sure that the systems are robust enough to deal with that that takes some time in testing so I can't give you a date or a time frame but what we are doing is working hard behind the scenes towards improving this type of data access but exactly what you said that is what we want to be out there so people will be able to identify whether you know what type of offence is where they are there will be obviously a number of apps that will come out in relation to that but I can only see that as a benefit sorry I am sure that there will be apps here that will give you your suburb and it will give you the crime that's happening in your suburb that's being reported on our online products as that's updated the app will update we've seen that happen elsewhere in the world so people there's no doubt that it will come this way you've normally seen other enterprises adapt apps in relation to even whether it be speed cameras whether it be some trucking firm may be driving on certain roads that can now be able to identify the best route for their drivers to go it might be able to you know what blockages there is ahead in traffic and that's good for their companies it saves their companies valuable dollars and times as well so there is a lot of apps there's a lot of enterprise people out there but we want to have all the information as possible out there in the community so it will be I can see it being a different world in relation to having statistical reviews in the future sorry we did actually have something at 11 but follow up on those things that you've raised was there anything else before we go thank you everyone how about that this time that's right yeah


It's no longer news that on October 3, 2023, the military government of Niger declared that, until further notice, Niger will no longer export liquefied petroleum gas to Nigeria and other countries. Immediately after the news hit social media, people began to speculate that this decision made by Niger was to punish Nigeria. Why? Well, based on the speculations, the military junta of Niger decided to ban the export of gas to Nigeria because the president of Nigeria, President Bola Tiniubu, who is also the current head of ECOWAS, was responsible for spearheading the effort to force the military junta to restore the deposed president of Niger, Mohammed Bozum. And, as part of his efforts to reinstate the deposed president, President Tiniubu threatened to intervene militarily in Niger and also cut off electricity to the country. But then the military government put up a strong resistance against ECOWAS economic sanctions and the threat of military invasion, and today they are fully in control of Niger, pending when they will transition to democratic rule. Thinking about these speculations, it actually makes a lot of sense, but is that the only reason why the government of Niger decided to ban the exports of gas to Nigeria. Let's take a look at some facts. LPG, commonly known as cooking gas, is a combustible mixture of hydrocarbon gases used as a fuel in cooking, heating, and other applications. Nigeria, the giant of Africa and Africa's largest oil exporter, is also the largest consumer of LPG in Africa with an estimated demand of 1.8 million metric tons per year. Unfortunately, despite the huge deposit of gas in the country, Nigeria has to rely on other African countries, including Algeria, Equatorial Guinea, and especially Niger, which has abundant natural gas. According to a report in 2022, Nigeria had to import over 55% of LPG to meet the growing demand for gas in the country. The reasons for this situation in Nigeria have been identified as inadequate infrastructure and, by extension, low domestic production. So, over the years, both Niger and Nigeria have had a trade understanding whereby Nigeria exports its excess gas to Nigeria, which has a high demand for it. The two countries even signed a memorandum of understanding for the importation of petroleum products just last year, in 2022. The agreement was formalized in the presence of Nigeria's former Minister of State for Petroleum, Timerpa Silver, and Fomacoigado, who represented the Niger Republic. This is a major step forward. The Niger Republic has some excess products that need to be evacuated. Nigeria has a market for these products. Therefore, this is going to be a win-win relationship for both countries, Silver had said. My hope is that this is going to be the beginning of deepening trade relations between the Niger Republic and Nigeria, he added. But now, the deepening trade relations that Nigeria's former Minister of State for Petroleum hoped for seem to have ended with the recent ban on the exportation of LPG to Nigeria. But if you take a closer look at the statement made by the military government of Nigeria, you will observe that it's not just about retaliating against Nigeria. According to the statement, gas produced locally should be used to supply the domestic market only, and where there is a surplus, a special authorization can be sought to export it. The Minister of Energy and Petroleum in Niger, Abdulay Issa, further explained that the ban on LPG exports to Nigeria is part of a strategic plan to boost Niger's domestic gas sector and promote industrialization. He stated that Nigeria has been exporting subsidized LPG to Nigeria, which has been detrimental to the Nigerian economy and the environment. He also stated that Niger plans to use its natural gas resources to generate energy, produce fertilizers, and help other sectors. This certainly makes a lot of sense because a country cannot export a product when it has not been able to meet local demands. To further prove that the decision by Nigeria was not just for revenge, a few weeks before the military government decided to ban the exports of gas, service stations acting as distributors and wholesalers of gas in Nigeria had seen their deliveries plunge. These distributors and wholesalers could only take delivery of one tanker a week instead of the normal three. This means that Niger had been living through a liquefied petroleum gas shortage even before the ban. Economist Mustafa Khadi also confirmed this fact when he explained that Niger produces around six tankers of butane gas a day. Generally, this production is distributed through the operators. We are talking about half of this production, which is sold by our partners to external operators or frequently sold to national operators, which then export gas to Nigeria to name just one country. Since the government has banned the export, our concern is how to meet demand, which is very high nowadays. In addition, according to a report by the petroleum minister, LPG exports peaked in 2013 and 2014 before becoming almost nil in 2019 and 2020 with increasing domestic demand. So, you can see that it's not just about retaliating against Nigeria, in fact, that might be the least reason for the decision. The major reason is that Niger was facing a gas shortage problem. Like Abdul Wahab Issaqa, a gas vendor in Niger said the government is right. It is not normal to enable the export of a product while locals need it and we do have gas. Now, what has been the response from Nigeria? The Nigerian Minister of State for Petroleum Resources expressed disappointment and concern over the decision made by Niger, stating that it will have a severe impact on the Nigerian economy and the well-being of millions of Nigerians who rely on LPG for their daily needs. And indeed, this decision has truly affected the Nigerian economy as the price of gas has skyrocketed from a previous 750 naira to 1,000 naira per kg. The minister further stated that Nigeria has been a trusted partner and key investor in the Nigerian gas sector and that the ban will harm the two nations' existing collaboration and integration. He urged the military government of Niger to reconsider its decision and engage in talks with Nigeria in order to reach a mutually beneficial solution. It remains to be seen whether the two countries will be able to find a solution that will benefit both of them, but one certain thing is that Niger's decision to ban the exports of gas to Nigeria will have significant implications for both countries as well as for the regional and international energy landscape. For example, the ban on LPG exports to Nigeria has cast out on the future of the Trans-Saharan gas pipeline, TSGP, which plans to transport natural gas from Nigeria to Europe via Niger and Algeria. The project, which has been in the works for nearly a decade, is projected to promote the participating countries' economic development and energy security while also reducing greenhouse gas emissions. However, the initiative has encountered various difficulties, including financial, security and regulatory constraints. Likely, the decision by Nigeria to limit LPG exports to Nigeria may also affect the TSGP project's prospects. For now, we can only watch to see how it all plays out. What are your thoughts? Let us know in the comment section down below and don't forget to like, subscribe and add his video.


It's always a battle when Bemidji and Brainerd meet up on the football field and tonight was no different. Adding to the excitement, snow falling on a September night and the first ever battle for the bell. Homecoming matchup for Bemidji, Brainerd looking for four in a row against the Lumberjacks. In the first quarter, the usual connection Jacob Beiberg to Ryan Beiberdorf. For the long grab, he would come up with a snag here, but he would get chased down at the end, down at the two yard line. In the second half of the season, Beiberg on the keeper crosses the goal line for the touchdown, but the P.A.T. is no good, keep that in mind. 6-0 Bemidji jump all the way to the fourth quarter, same score. Brainerd driving the keeper to Sam Mellor. He scores from four out and they take a 7-6 lead. Bemidji driving 2-30 left, fourth and 13 Beiberdorf with the reception. A big first down on that fourth down later in the drive. The reverse to James William lowers his score as Bemidji takes a 12-7 lead and would hold on to take the bell. Bemidji moves to four and one on the year. If you enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News, please consider making a tax deductible contribution to Lakeland PBS.


Hello, hello, what is happening? It's your boy Nick Chay coming back at you guys with a new video today We're talking about something that I've been wanting to kind of just get off my chest and put out into the world And I know it's gonna be very controversial And so there's a few disclaimers I want to get into but before this video gets started If you enjoy these types of videos just talking about college and honest reactions and everything like that make sure you Guys hit that subscribe button because there's gonna be tons of new content coming out for you guys But yes, this is not clickbait This is exactly what you guys have been wanting to know and something that like I said I've been wanting to say and it's the shit I hate about Princeton now the disclaimers first off I understand I am very very fortunate to be where I am at the school that I am with Opportunities and the resources that I have so everything I say in this video Please take with a grain of salt because I know that people are gonna be typing in the comments Like oh you go to Princeton you're so ungrateful like I literally just said that like I know I understand that I'm fully aware of that But there are still the cons of the school still the negative sides that I feel like people don't talk about and if you Know schools like this or Harvard or Stanford or whatever are your dream schools Then it's good to be informed of the reality of the situation because they're not just all magical places where everything is nice all the time So that's the first disclaimer second disclaimer is that this is just my opinion one student going to the school There are literally thousands of other people So if you are a person student yourself right now watching this your opinions could be totally different from mine And that's fine. It's okay to agree to disagree But I mean this is what I have taken away from my two years here Not that anything I say is you know right or the right mentality to go about things But just how I'm feeling and I think that would be beneficial to share with you So let's just jump into it now first and foremost the biggest thing I hate about the school is the self-inflicted stress Now granted there are dozens of variables that go into why people are stressed here But for me I definitely think that the majority of it is self-inflicted meaning that Students here just tend to like stress themselves out Unnecessarily over things that really don't need to be stressed about and it's hard not feeling like that when you've just got so much Stuff going on like obviously your academics the classes are super hard the extra curriculars Everyone's involved in different things on top of that you're doing interviews got job applications You got real-world shit that you got to get taken care of it's just so much negative energy that you can just kind of feel it on This campus and it's not good It's not healthy and on top of that just seem to like everything piles up on top of each other and just makes sometimes like Really really miserable like midterms week and finals week You guys know how much I hate that period of this school year And it's just getting annoying sometimes because not that any other school isn't hard But as much as I hate to say it like this is Princeton. This is Ivy League like classes are just Objectively harder like the courses are harder the material you have to cover is harder The semesters are shorter meaning that you have to cram all the information into 12 weeks compared to 15 or 16 weeks at Any other school and that just makes it really stressful and just something that I am really fed up with right now Number two is this underlying Competitiveness within the student body now This is not something that people are gonna tell you that Princeton is a very cutthroat school that there's competition everywhere and that people Are always trying to outdo each other, but it's underlying. It's unheard of it's like not spoken about which is one like I said Not good. It's not healthy It's not conducive for our school to be a better community and grow from it because It's like the sense of like people are like Subconsciously judging one another for either not getting an internship or the summer or not having job applications ready or whatever The case may be like there is always some kind of like underlying competitive news that goes around the school Like you have someone what you're doing this summer and oh, I have an internship at JP Morgan or oh I'm going to Goldman Sachs or whatever and like it just makes you feel almost inferior feeling like oh crap Why don't I have my shit together like why didn't I know about this why I did not get my application ready and like No malice to anyone that is on top of all their stuff that they need to be and they're succeeding and they're taking advantage of everything School has to offer, but I just don't want that negative energy to almost lead into this Like I'm trying to outdo you but I'm not going to tell you about a kind of mentality now That's very vague and it's hard to understand unless you're kind of a student here But I hope you can kind of get the gist of that point number three now This was not something I was very aware of before coming to college But especially coming to school like Princeton social climbing that shit is annoying like people will do anything to try to Climb to the top of whatever it is That's not to say people aren't going to be doing things to maneuver their way to the top of the social ladder Whether it's just like acting different around certain people or trying to fit into groups that they're not really a part of like It's a very controversial thing and something that like is a negative thing on campus to be talked about But that's just my two cents like I clearly don't know everything about this I might just be being shit up, but like I don't know it's annoying to me number four is the Unnecessary bullshit now. I know this whole video just sounds like me complaining on and on about how hard the classes are And I know I signed myself up for this, but sometimes I'm just sitting in my classes I'm like bro.  I'll look back and be like thank god I did all that because it put me in a better place for this job and I was successful from it or whatever And I know I'll thank myself in the future But right now Kurt Nick is like man This is it's almost like not a waste of my time because I know that like I signed myself up for this Like I said and that like I just need to get through it get the degree get out of here But man like and to be honest like I don't even have it that hard like I'm an econ major and yes That's hard, but some of my friends are doing computer science or electrical engineering They're taking like all these courses that seems so hard. I'm like I feel bad But I feel worse for my friends sometimes, but that's just another thing that's super annoying about the school now I know that wasn't a super long list It's not as juicy as some of you guys might have been thinking it was gonna be but I don't know That's kind of where I get that off my chest. I know that I could have easily made a video talking about things I love about Princeton because that list is way longer But that's the thing that I've already talked about and I know that a lot of you guys are looking up high schools like This but just keep your mind open You realize that like what you're signing up for is going to be very very very difficult very very stressful and At times it's not gonna be all fun and games like it's real shit. You got to do man like Now I just want to re-emphasize that these are just opinions of one student at the school Some people may be loving their time here not having no difficulties even though that's probably impossible You know so just take everything I say with a grain of salt Don't think that the school isn't great or like if you get in like you're not gonna have a good time Anyways, I hope you guys enjoyed this real talk if you did make sure you guys leave a comment down below Let me know any new types of videos you guys want to see and I will see you guys next time You


The COVID-19 vaccine and flu vaccine are different and it's safe to get both vaccines at the same time, so don't hesitate. Vaccinate. The Pike County Health Department reminds you that the strongest defense is vaccination against flu and COVID. A simple registration violation resulted in a police chase that ended with a crash and a Logan County man jailed on numerous charges. A Logan County Sheriff's Deputy spotted the vehicle Saturday on Buffalo Creek Road and attempted to pull it over. Instead, the vehicle sped away, driving in the wrong lane and eventually crashed into an abandoned building. The driver, identified by court records as 43-year-old Nathan Joe Mead ran from the vehicle but was quickly arrested. The deputy discovered Mead had active warrants for absconding home confinement, escape and destruction of property. He was also charged with fleeing with reckless indifference, possession of fentanyl, fleeing on foot and several traffic violations. He is now being held without bail in the southwestern regional jail at Holden.


In what was arguably the largest ever environmental protest in the world, more than a million children across more than a hundred countries joined a global climate march demanding that governments act. The concerns of the young protesters are justified and supported by the best available science, wrote a group of scientists and scholars. The enormous mobilization shows that young people have at least understood the situation and we strongly support their demand for rapid and forceful action. In terms of our food supply, there are all sorts of little tweaks, like feed additives that can reduce cattle belching, but put all those tweaks together, according to the Pristise-Z-Lancet Commission, and we're only talking about reducing agricultural greenhouse gas emissions in 2050 by about 10%, whereas if we instead switched over to plant foods, we could reduce emissions by up to 80%. All those cow sheep and goat burps only represent a fraction of the greenhouse gas emissions from animal agriculture, so that's why, according to the IPCC, the official intergovernmental panel on climate change, becoming a so-called climate carnivore, just cutting down on ruminant products like beef wouldn't reduce greenhouse gas emissions as much as eating a healthier diet and limiting meat across the board, and the fewer animal products, the better. Which diet has the least environmental impact on our planet? A systematic review found that eating completely plant-based, maybe the optimal diet for the environment, but it's not all or nothing, even just cutting down on meat under an ounce or two a day could get you half the way there in terms of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. In terms of land use, a healthier diet like a Mediterranean diet may decrease your footprint by about a quarter, whereas even more plant-based diets can drop land use 50% or more. In general, diets that include meat require about three times more water, 13 times more fertilizer, more than twice the energy, and 40% more pesticides than those that don't. If you look even broader at the total environmental impact of omnivorous versus vegetarian versus vegan diets, looking not just at global warming, but ocean acidification, agricultural runoff, smug eco-toxicity of the water and soil, and direct human toxicity of the air we breathe, water we drink, and the soil we grow our food from, eating eggs and dairy. Maybe 9 times worse than plants, and eating eggs, dairy, and meat, maybe 17 times worse than sticking to plant foods. Oh, and as a bonus, we could feed an extra additional 350 million Americans, like an entire extra country's worth of people, more than if we eliminated food waste completely. Changing meat-eating habits would seem to be a relatively cheap and easy way to mitigate climate change in contrast to many other factors outside our control. However, surveys suggest few seem to recognize this option of eating less meat as a significant opportunity for helping. Research has shown that consumers often underestimate the impacts of meat consumption on the environment in general and on climate change in particular. The outstanding effectiveness of the less meat option as established by climate experts was recognized by only 6% of Americans sampled, and that's after they were prompted to assume climate change is actually happening. There's an overwhelming scientific consensus that climate change is real and we're driving it, but only about half of U.S. adults believe it. This is not by coincidence, just like the tobacco industry tried to subvert the overwhelming evidence that smoking caused cancer. Companies like Exxon orchestrated climate change denial campaigns that stalled meaningful efforts for decades. Certainly, environmental groups should know better, though, none of the highest-profile NGOs examined appear to want to feature the link between meat consumption and climate change. They're all aware of the evidence, of course, but evidently the science alone was not sufficient. It's like another form of denialism that can become like a negative feedback loop, where it's not popular to talk about, so you don't talk about it, so remains not popular to talk about, depriving the issue of the attention it needs to break out. And when they have messaged about it, environmental groups have tended to favor just asking for a moderate reduction in meat consumption, notable given the research demonstrating how much more powerful a lever it could be at the individual lever to go even further.  But the cumulative impact of large numbers of individuals making just marginal improvements in their environmental impact may end up constituting just a marginal collective improvement. Yet we now live at a time when we need to make urgent and ambitious changes.