The Queensland government's plan to fit cars with engine immobilisers will be "pointless" at curbing the state's ongoing car theft crisis, the RACQ says.
The government will spend $10 million installing 20,000 engine immobilisers in a trial across Mount Isa, Cairns and Townsville, where ongoing car thefts have brewed a hotbed of community tension.
An engine immobiliser is an electronic security device embedded into a vehicle's engine management system that stops it from starting without a unique key or code, depending on the model.
More than 1,342 cars were stolen in the 2021-21 financial year, with just under half of the thefts committed by young people aged between 10 and 17.
The cash splash is one of 10 sweeping changes to Queensland's youth justice laws announced by Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk on Thursday.
It was sparked by the arrest of two 17-year-olds accused of fatally stabbing 41-year-old Emma Lovell during a home invasion in Moreton Bay on Boxing Day.
Unlikely to reduce car theft: RACQ
But the RACQ said engine immobilisers were "really not worth it".
"The vehicles that we see stolen and used for joyriding, the majority of time, is from people getting into the house, stealing the keys and taking these vehicles," said RACQ principal technical researcher Andrew Kirk.
"You can still put an engine immobiliser on a newer vehicle … but 99.9 per cent of the time the [immobiliser] key or fob are with the car key anyhow.
"I would be surprised if there is a significant reduction in car thefts by fitting these secondary immobilisers."
Mr Kirk advised people to not leave their keys on a table or on a hook next to the front door.
"Hide them out of sight, in a drawer," he said.
Social media tracked down car thieves
It's a lesson Townsville's Amanda Pratt learnt the hard way.
She was asleep in her home when thieves took her keys and made off with her 10-day-old car — a high-performance, twin-turbocharged Kia Stinger.
Six months on, it isn't the theft that still sits heavy with her but the invasion of privacy into her family home.
"You get to the point where you feel really sick and nauseous," Ms Pratt said.
"And that feeling just stays.
"Since this has happened, I still get that moment of dread. Is tonight the night they are going to come back for round two?"
At the time, Ms Pratt and her husband used social media to track the stolen car and were sent multiple screenshots of the alleged thieves bragging about their crimes online.
"[Then] I had a call from the police saying that my car had been found," she said.
"It was a huge sigh of relief which then turned to dread when they told me [the thieves] had actually burnt it out in the middle of Townsville."
Harsher penalties for crimes shared online
Youth Advocacy Centre chief executive Katherine Hayes said young people who stole cars were often disengaged and were seeking a sense of belonging.
"More often than not they come from poverty," she said.
But Ms Hayes said social media was making the problems worse.
"Some of the crime gangs we are aware of require posting of car theft to join the gang," she said.
"It gives the young people a platform to boast about what they are doing to a very large audience, so social media does have a really big part to play."
The state government will introduce increased penalties for criminals who boast about crimes on social media as part of its legislative changes next year, but it's not yet clear what they will look like.
Offenders return to detention
Queensland Minister for Children and Youth Justice Leanne Linard also blames social media for the increase in repeat offenders at the state's three youth detention centres.
In north Queensland, 96 per cent of children detained in Townsville's Cleveland Youth Detention Centre between July 2020 and June 2021 were charged with another crime within a year of being released.
The figures, recently released by Ms Linard, showed similar rates of repeat offenders at Brisbane Youth Detention Centre (92 per cent) and West Moreton Youth Detention Centre (84 per cent).
"We're seeing this sense of competition or notoriety," Ms Linard said.
"Sadly, when they put vision on Facebook it's being shared and can often be shared into multiple community groups.
"It's not easy, because we've seen a reduction in the number of young people in the system, but we have seen that small cohort who are reoffending more."
