'We Don't Feel Safe Anymore': Logan Residents Speak Out on Street Violence

Residents of Woodridge and Kingston are calling on the LNP state government to act urgently after a string of violent incidents this winter has left multiple streets feeling, in the words of one local community group, like a "no-go zone after dark." The calls come as broader concern about youth violence grips the country following the fatal stabbing of a teenager in Melbourne this week.

Logan City has absorbed tens of thousands of new residents since 2022 as the sea-change migration wave from New South Wales and Victoria pushed south-east Queensland's population to nearly 3.9 million. The infrastructure hasn't kept pace. Queensland Police Service data released in May 2026 showed that Logan's Woodridge station district recorded a 14 per cent year-on-year increase in assault offences in the 12 months to March, the steepest rise of any district in the Brisbane metropolitan footprint.

Communities Stretched Thin

The Kingston Road shopping precinct has become a flashpoint. Shopkeepers along the strip say they have called triple-zero multiple times since April only to wait upwards of 40 minutes for a patrol car to arrive. The Logan City Council-funded CCTV network, expanded in late 2024 under the Safe City Program, covers most of the precinct's car parks, but residents say footage rarely translates into arrests fast enough to deter repeat offenders.

The Logan Together community network, which runs youth outreach from its Woodridge office on Wembley Road, says its drop-in sessions are at capacity. Coordinators there say they are seeing younger and younger kids — some as young as 11 — turning up after school with nowhere else to be. Without a named city-wide referral pathway from police to youth services, families say they keep getting bounced between agencies. A single mother from Kingston who asked not to be named described ringing the QPS non-emergency line three times in one fortnight about groups gathering in her laneway. Each time she was told an officer would follow up. None did.

Out at Inala, on Brisbane's south-western fringe, the picture is similar. The Inala Community House on Corsair Avenue has expanded its safe-space opening hours twice since January, now running until 9 pm on weekdays, to give young people somewhere structured to go. Staff there say demand has outstripped what a volunteer-heavy organisation can realistically handle without recurrent state funding.

What the Data Shows — and What It Doesn't

Queensland's 2025-26 budget allocated $47 million over four years to expand the Intensive Case Management program, which pairs high-risk young offenders with specialist workers. The government says 340 young people statewide are currently enrolled. Critics, including the Queensland Council of Social Service, argue that figure is a fraction of the cohort that needs support, and that Logan and Ipswich combined account for a disproportionate share of referrals while receiving less than 20 per cent of program resources.

The QPS has added 12 officers to the Logan district since February, part of a broader commitment to put 2,200 extra police on the beat by 2028 ahead of the Brisbane Olympics. But at street level, the new numbers haven't yet translated into visible patrols in the streets residents flag most often — Cinderella Drive in Woodridge, and the bus interchange on Wembley Road after 7 pm.

Community leaders say the short-term answer is more coordinated night patrols and a 24-hour point of contact at the Logan Together hub so families have somewhere to call that isn't triple-zero. The state government is due to release an updated Community Safety Action Plan before the end of July. Youth advocates are watching to see whether that plan includes dedicated funding for south-east Queensland's growth corridors or whether it defaults to a law-enforcement-only response. Residents say they want both — police and services working together — and that the coming weeks will reveal which way Premier David Crisafulli's government is prepared to lean.