Cops fear unhappy New Year

POLICE are preparing for an extra-long New Year’s Eve with revellers expected to begin the countdown to midnight on Sunday from as early as tonight.

With Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve falling on Sundays this year, some of 2017’s biggest New Year’s parties and events on the Coast will swing into action tomorrow night – the eve of New Year’s Eve.

Gold Coast Police Major Events boss Inspector Des Hearn said police would be out in force from tonight.

“We’ll still have a normal response for our Safe Night Precincts with extra police in the area at Broadbeach, Coolangatta and Surfers from Friday and then on New Year’s Eve we’ll have that larger presence along the foreshore areas,” he said.

“We’ve done risk assessments on all the areas and have measures in place to make sure everyone has a safe night.

“We’ll have PolAir up doing intel for us and we’ll be doing local intel, searching social media to look for unplanned events and parties.”

Insp Hearn said police would also be on the lookout for illegal fireworks and people drinking in public places.

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“It’s an offence to drink in public. It’s one of our major issues,” he said. “We would like to remind people to have an enjoyable night but to remember there are other people out there trying to have fun.

“If you’re having a drink, have a plan in place to get home using the public transport system, in a taxi or using a private ride sharing service.

“We don’t want anyone to let off fireworks. Obviously there are issues with safety so leave that to the professionals.”

Free fireworks displays will light up the skies over Surfers Paradise (8pm, 10pm and midnight), Southport (9pm), Main Beach (8pm and midnight), Broadbeach (8pm and midnight), Coolangatta (9pm and midnight) and Coomera (9.30pm).

Insp Hearn said police, including plain clothes detectives, would also monitor revellers at the White Party music festival at McLaren’s Landing, on South Stradbroke Island.