Police data shows car thefts slowly dipping across Townsville, Cairns, and Mount Isa

Slowly but surely, car theft offences are finally dipping in Townsville, Cairns, and Mount Isa, with numbers slightly down across the board for the first five months of 2024. See the latest crime data and graphs.

Slowly but surely, car theft offences are finally dipping in Townsville, Cairns, and Mount Isa, with numbers slightly down across the board for the first five months of 2024.

The latest police data reveals that Townsville recorded a total of 606 unlawful use of a motor vehicle offences between January and May 2024.

This marks a 16 per cent decrease in offending compared to the same period in 2023, which saw 729 offences, and a six per cent drop from 2022, which had 646 offences.

This downward trend is a promising change after Townsville recorded a decades-long high in car thefts in 2023, with 5,474 offences, representing an 87 per cent increase from 2013.

In Cairns, car thefts have also declined slightly this year. The city recorded 252 offences from January to May 2024, a five per cent decrease from the 266 offences reported during the same period in 2023, and a 36 per cent drop from 417 offences in 2022.

Mount Isa has experienced fluctuations in car theft offences. In the first five months of 2024, there were 107 recorded offences, a slight three per cent decrease from 111 in 2023, but an 44 per cent increase from 74 in 2022.

This overall decline in car thefts across North Queensland provides a glimmer of hope for police that their efforts to crack down on these offences, aided by the new addition of a PolAir chopper based in Townsville, appear to be yielding results.

The chopper has also been loaned out to police in Cairns to aid in nabbing car thieves during a series of police blitzes.

The state government has also promised Cairns funding for its own dedicated police helicopter.

Townsville Police Acting Superintendent Dean Cavanagh said that despite some concerning crime spikes earlier this year, overall offending in Townsville has been lower because young offenders are being arrested more quickly.

“Due to the co-ordinated response, and especially the aerial support that we’re getting, we’re actually arresting these guys a lot sooner, before they get on that trajectory of committing further offences,” he said.

“So on average, the offending is a lot lower. The period that these offenders are out in the community committing harm is less. It seems to be working.”

Originally published as Police data shows car thefts slowly dipping across Townsville, Cairns, and Mount Isa