By Margaret Maccoll
When new Noosa police officer-in-charge Ben Carroll was told by Noosa Mayor Tony Wellington a recent survey showed people perceive crime to be quite high in Noosa, he did his own investigating.
The Senior Sergeant conducted a 20-year statistical analysis of the area’s crime and found it to be very low.
Sen Sgt Carroll said crime rates had declined in all categories over that time.
Assaults have seen a downward trend, property offences have reduced and break and enters have dropped in the past two decades from about 800 to less than 100 in the past year.
The exception has been domestic violence rates which Sen Sgt Carroll attributes to an encouragement to report domestic violence and changes in legislation to expand the offence from one between a husband and wife to include de facto, same sex couples and family violence.
Drink driving is an issue he identified in the region, and one he tackled at his last post in Rockhampton through a cultural shift.
“It’s all ages but not as common in younger people. It’s the older demographic,” he said.
“With so many Ubers and taxis, there shouldn’t be a reason for it”
This is Sen Sgt Carroll’s second duty round in Noosa. Last time he was straight out of the academy and under the watchful eye of former Bob Atkinson who later became Police Commissioner.
It was 30 years ago after police solved the shocking murder of schoolgirl Sian Kingi and his boss told the young officer to read her whole brief.
“It was heart-wrenching. Tragic for the family. I remember reading it and thinking that’s why I joined the police force,” he said.
Sen Sgt Carroll went on to investigate other murders. He has a diverse background which includes time spent as a detective in Brisbane, a tactical officer and stints across Queensland including at Mornington Island, Birdsville, Normanton, Mt Isa and most recently North Rockhampton where he was officer-in-charge.
He grew up in Gympie where his parents still live and holidayed regularly at Noosa as a boy as well as Yeppoon where he was a lifesaver. His father was a police officer for about six years after WWII before switching to teaching.
Ben and his wife Christine and their three sons look forward to returning to a favourite place close to family.
