 Hi everyone, I'm acting regional crime coordinator for the Metropolitan South region. I'm here today to talk about the launching of Project Hoodie Free Zone. That project was initiated in the Wynnum Police District by some active police officers down there that were investigating armed robberies there in recent times. The project is targeted at people covering their faces essentially when they go into high-risk premises such as service stations. When we say a Hoodie Free Zone, we're really talking about people cooperating with us just to be mindful of the risk to staff at these high-risk premises and to be mindful not to cover their faces. We're aware that we can't force people to not wear hoodies or such garments but we're just trying to highlight this to the community. You're asking shopkeepers to put out certain displays as well aren't you? Part of the project will be to, yes, display a sign denying members of the public to be mindful of covering their faces with hoodies and the like. How prevalent are they? We were just discussing this earlier. Yes, they often do use a hoodie to cover their face but they can also use shirts, plain alert shirts are often used but there's been a number of things. I think someone said today bubble wrap was used. So they use a lot of things but certainly hoodies. The hood cover is often used, yes. Since January this year there's been a number where they've used them. A number of offences have been used in that manner. I must add too that this was initiated in Wynnum. It's not because Wynnum has a high occurrence of armed robberies any more than anywhere else in the state and in fact this initiative we hope to go statewide if it's successful. You're hoping that if you ask people not to put out hoodies they'll be more easily identifiable on closer television cameras? Yes certainly and to customers, potential witnesses and obviously the people that are at risk the people that are manning these premises primarily after hours. Now if you're planning to introduce this initiative on Friday what response do you have from business owners, shopkeepers and the general community in Wynnum so far? In fact this project is in the planning phase we're not intending to launch it until next month. So obviously we've had some concern from some people think why Wynnum? Well Wynnum as I said it's only Wynnum because the police there have shown this initiative. They've come forward to our project team in Metropolitan South and we've embraced it, we think it's a great initiative and we in fact can see this going statewide. Did it go national as well? I'm not sure about that, we've only discussed on a statewide basis at this stage. I mean it is an extension of years ago people were walking into these premises that are at risk with helmets. I think we've already called those days and the risk that was associated with that so this is really extension of that. Oh look we're not in the business of making legislation on what people wear or anything, it's not intended to that at all. People can wear what they like and we're not about that. We're just interested in community safety and making people aware that by all means wear a hoodie but when they go into these premises not to actually have the hood up. Obvious reasons. We'll know this isn't targeted at any ethic or religious group. Obviously we're not targeting that. The concern is with hoodies. Not to my knowledge. That's always a possibility but as again I'm sure that people are aware these days of the risk of armed robberies and I just asked people to be mindful of the concern of these people after ours. Obviously they are very frightened. We've done a number of research, a lot of premises and they're all for this project obviously. Obvious reasons and yes whilst that might happen but again we'd like to think they'd be considerate of these attendants. As part of this when we launch this with our project team we're hoping to have a package if you like where there'll be height gauges on the doors so we can assist investigations. There will be a sticker saying no hoody type thing with the no mobile phones that you see in service stations and also we're hoping to incorporate or provide a seminar if you like where people can come and receive a lecture of our people in relation to armed robberies and what they should do as far as crime prevention. Yes well store owners are obviously they can we would support store owners if there was an issue in that regard. They can refuse entry to places particularly after ours. A lot of these premises now have locks on the doors and I would suggest that the staff would be mindful of anyone covering their face and if anyone did have a face covered they wouldn't allow them entry and that's the prerogative of the business people. We as part of any project we research it and we do an assessment at the end of it to see how effective it is. Obviously we have our crime statistics and what have you and we'll do a certain analysis to see if it's effective or not. That hasn't been determined as yet. The project team's got to discuss that and there's obviously printing things and different. We want to discuss it further with the community at this stage we've only discussed it with the most high risk the service stations and the 7-11s and your like so we want to extend that to who we discuss it with before we actually launch it. Do you have any? I haven't no I haven't seen any stats in that regard. Because? Do you have a lock up of the studio? That hasn't been approved at this stage but we've certainly got some in place but I'll check afterwards if you like and see if we can provide that. They're not supposed to be available until Monday so I just don't know. And why did they want it so badly? If you cast your mind back a couple of months ago we had an operation magnetic which was a lot of armed robberies on service stations across the southern side of Brisbane and the Gold Coast. The investigators there decided that they would visit on Labor Day in fact on the 2nd of May this year. They visited every, for one of a better term, soft target or high risk premises. They went to every one of them. Every one of those premises were concerned of this face concealing thing. About half the premises were held up with people using covering their face with the hood of a jacket. So from that their crime prevention people came to the project team with this initiative so excellent initiative on their behalf. Yes, most definitely they're agitated particularly late at night when these premises are at highest risk. Anyone that comes in there because their experience and what they've been trained with and what we've, a lot of our people go around and speak to these people obviously to be watched for anyone that is covering their face. So they are yes most definitely agitated by anyone that has their face covered with anything not only just a hoodie. Fear to these people that are attendants and not only attendants, the customers I was saying before like we've all been in a situation where you're going to a service station if someone walks in with a helmet you know obviously you're going to be agitated so it's not only the staff who are at most at risk but it's also the customers. Bigger pardon? Certainly would, particularly this time of year but not in one of these premises there. I think you've just got to be considerate of these people. Most people? Kind of great. There you go. That's our feedback too. It's pretty hard to find sweatshirts that don't make the hoodies of the back of your head. That's right, exactly right. And that's also not saying don't wear a hoodie it's just be considerate where you put the hood up. And just to clarify, how are you targeting such as servos, 24 hour convenience stores? Yes, that type of thing. Is it Wynnum district or Wynnum? Wynnum police district is where we'll be launching it, yes. So that covers Wynnum manly? Cleveland. Low time. Redland Bay, that area. I'd have to get those figures back to you later. After I've got the rough figures I think there's something like and I'm only guessing there's about 14 I think about half of them will use hoodies. And some of them are still outstanding defenders. Yep, all that area. Rod Chandler. It's quite a big district. Yeah it is, distance wise here. Oxley district. I'm not sure, but we want Oxley and South Brisbane district to come online depending on how the trial goes in Wynnum. I think we're going to try it for a month, Anna. Yeah, about a month. And you don't just have to use it? Yeah, we're not targeting premises in general. It's just the high-risk ones, like we've just outlined. So it won't be general businesses just the high-risk ones. Or can they do that if they're so serious? Certainly. Certainly, yes. No, no. At this stage they haven't requested it and they're not the targets, the high-risk ones. Thank you. Thanks for your time. Thank you.