$12M VOW TO FIGHT RAMPANT CRIME

TOWNSVILLE mayoral candidate Greg Dowling would set up a $12 million “Safe City Program”, with two-thirds of it to be spent on hundreds more CCTV cameras and the rest on a “youth training program”.

Mr Dowling ( pictured) has also pledged to “turn up at the Premier’s doorstep” every Monday, if needed, to get a hundred more cops on the beat in Townsville.

But the policy has been slammed as plagiarism by Mayor Jenny Hill, who earlier this month pitched a five-point community protection policy that included ensuring young criminals would be made to spruce up council-owned parks or clean up graffiti.

She said the council also had no police powers or authority under the Youth Justice Act, and it would be irresponsible to spend $12 million of ratepayers’ money on a problem that is the responsibility of higher levels of government.

Mr Dowling’s plan includes setting up a steering committee within his first fortnight of power, before spending $8 million over two years to install 300 more CCTV cameras across the “most vulnerable” parts of the city, including relocating the monitoring facility to the CBD to increase its capacity.

Cr Hill said for every 80 cameras installed, the council needed to hire an extra employee to monitor them all, making for four additional staff under Mr Dowling’s plan.

The remaining $4 million would be spent engaging with organisations that “re-educate young people with criminal convictions” through “youth training programs”.

“It is important that young offenders don’t fall through the cracks. They need to learn lifelong skills for a better life,” Mr Dowling said.