COMMUNITY volunteers are patrolling Manunda's streets at night, trying to keep in check a rise in  
anti-social activity from roaming gangs of youths.

The new patrol was launched as debate reignites over the need for a nightly curfew on youth in the suburb to help curb an increase in vandalism.

Do you think a youth curfew should be introduced in Cairns? Vote in our poll or post a comment.

The patrols, co-ordinated from the Manoora community centre, involve a rostered group of volunteers who use a council car to patrol trouble spots at Manunda between 7pm and 4am on Friday and Saturday.

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The volunteers do not interfere in dangerous or violent situations, but instead make sure young children are not wandering the streets at late hours.

Manunda Neighbourhood Watch chairwoman Thelma Spelta said she supported a curfew, especially if it led to increased parental responsibility and the granting of more disciplinary authority for school teachers.

"There should be a curfew around there if they are going to keep mucking up," she said.

"For people under 18 the curfew should be 10pm, or even 9pm. I would support that wholeheartedly.

"They shouldn’t be out to all hours of the night because how will they concentrate at school the next day."

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Cairns police district Insp Russell Rhodes said the size of Cairns would make a curfew hard to enforce, saying strong legislation would be needed before the plan could be considered.

"Cairns these days has a population over 100,000 so the question becomes are we able to enforce and police a curfew," he said.

"And we would be dealing with the children we are already dealing with now so we would rely heavily on strong legislation to even try and do this."

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Insp Rhodes said police had procedures in place on how to deal with children found wandering the streets at night.

"It is fair to say we put a lot of human resources into two or three particular suburbs here in Cairns and that is because it is a known stomping ground for some of these offending children," he said.

"They are out there late at night, they are in groups, they are moving around and they are doing the wrong thing."

But civil libertarians and politicians have dismissed the idea of a curfew, saying it would be hard to police and
discriminatory.

Cairns MP Desley Boyle said: "Curfews have been discussed many times without offering another plausible solution.

"They punish the good majority and would not be effective in curtailing the troublesome minority."

Queensland Council for Civil Liberties president Michael Cope said there was no evidence curfews worked and instead called for a system more inclusive of youth workers and parenting support.

Ms Spelta said a curfew could be effective if agencies approached the problem together.

"That is the only way it could work, with everyone working together," she said, citing Lyons Park as an example of results that could be achieved.

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