Police Minister Mark Ryan today joined Police Commissioner Ian Stewart and Assistant Commissioner Brian Wilkins to announce the Arundel Policing Hub is moving ahead, with tenders for its construction due to close on April 5, 2019.
Mr Ryan said the new facility will be a dynamic and innovative addition to policing on the Gold Coast.
The new purpose-built building will serve as an operational hub for Gold Coast policing and will follow the model created by the Rapid Action Patrol.
"The Palaszczuk Government takes seriously its commitment to effectively equipping our police with the state-of-the-art resources and facilities to fight crime in Queensland.
"With a Government commitment of $2.4 million in the 2018-19 budget to start construction on the Arundel Policing Hub and an estimated total project cost of $11.5 million this is a demonstration of the Palaszczuk Government's investment in our police and tackling crime on the Gold Coast.
"The Gold Coast is already benefiting from our commitment with over 1000 police based across the city from General Duties, the Criminal Investigation Branch, Rapid Action Patrol (RAP) and centrally functioned units based locally like Major and Organised Crime, Taskforce Maxima, Road Policing, Dog Squad, Water Police and Forensic officers.
"This facility based at Arundel with easy access to the M1 will allow a flexible, fluid and borderless policing approach to tackle crime," the Minister said.
Commissioner Ian Stewart said the new facility would effectively complement the District Tasking and Coordination Centre (DTACC) which monitors crime in real time and deploys police where needed across the Gold Coast.
"It is a more centrally based facility with easy access to both the northern and southern corridors of the Gold Coast via the M1 for quick response to either end of the coast.
"Rapid Action Patrols (RAP) which is one of the many policing units based in the facility, will continue with the effective intelligence driven policing that has proven to be a success for this district.
"RAP will be the model for modern borderless policing with officers not restricted to areas but able to freely move across the Gold Coast to where they are needed.
"This Hub is a state-of-the art base for this new policing model to operate from and will be a welcome addition to policing on the Gold Coast."
