A special police operation is to be launched in Cairns to target youth offenders with a focus on property crime and high-risk recidivist offenders.
Cairns has also been selected as the first location in Queensland for the rollout of a cohort of school-based police support officers who will work in school communities to identify and support at-risk young people.
Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll and Assistant Commissioner Cheryl Scanlon who is the newly appointed head of Queensland’s Youth Crime Taskforce, are to visit Cairns in the near future to further explain what the initiatives will mean.
Commissioner Carroll emphasised that the targets were hard core offenders who were “the individuals causing concern in the community”.
“The new operation that will begin in Cairns is specifically aimed at that cohort of offenders,” Commissioner Carroll said.
Minister for Police, Mark Ryan welcomed the establishment of the Cairns operation.
“In the last year we have seen the number of youth offenders fall by more than 20 per cent — that is encouraging,” Mr Ryan said.
“What is of great concern is the rate of offending by hard core, recidivist offenders. These are the people we will target and I welcome the new initiatives police are implementing in Cairns.”
MP for Cairns, Michael Healy said he had been advocating for these reforms.
“This hard-line approach to recidivist offenders is what we need to target this small group of trouble-makers who cause so much concern in the community,” Mr Healy said.
