Police will be very visible across Queensland this holiday season. Photo: Glenn Hunt
Queenslanders will see almost more blue than red and green this Christmas period, with "every available" police officer ordered onto patrols, but Commissioner Ian Stewart has admitted authorities have very little chance of guarding against lone actor attacks.
Premier Campbell Newman said the increased police presence was there to "re-assure" the community in the wake of the Sydney siege, despite there being no indication or intelligence of a threat to the state.
But Commissioner Stewart said while "high risk people in our society" would come under closer watch, there were others authorities would miss, despite the increased vigilance and police presence.
Tributes at Sydney's Martin Place, seen from the air. Photo: Cole Bennetts
"Obviously there are high risk people in our society, there may be the need to keep them under close watch, but I think there is this whole other group in the community who are maybe driven by different agendas to what you and I are driven by – they go about their daily lives, most of the time in the same way we do," Commissioner Stewart said.
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"But then, just as I think we'll find with this particular criminal [in Sydney], something has happened to trigger a reaction, a very violent reaction to the rest of the community that is very, very difficult to guard against when it is a single person.
"But having said that, the actions of that person may have been noticed by someone in the community."
Lone actors tend not to have received "training or tasking from terror organisations" according to the British intelligence agency, MI5, but are "usually inspired and motivated by extremist ideological materials available online".
The individuals or small groups tend to operate independently and choose smaller scale targets to carry out less sophisticated attacks, but their solitary nature means authorities may not have them on their radar, or any idea an attack is coming.
Motivations are still being examined for the Sydney siege, which cost the lives of two hostages and the gunman holding them in the Martin Place Lindt cafe in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
While asking Queenslanders to continue their usual activities, Commissioner Stewart also asked for people to be alert for unusual behaviour.
"If you see something, it might seem innocuous at the time, but if it is worrying enough for a member of our society to be worried about it, make the call," he said.
"I would much rather investigate 100 pieces of information and not get one hit rather than miss the important one."