Operation Uniform Cygnus: Youths still driving force behind Townsville property crime

Alarming new data shows youths make up more than 70 per cent of the offenders being charged by police during a crackdown on property crime in Townsville.

Alarming new data shows youths make up more than 70 per cent of the offenders being charged by police during a crackdown on property crime in Townsville.

Police have been running Operation Uniform Cygnus throughout 2022, focusing on prolific property offenders, with police arresting 1172 people on 3745 charges to date.

Criminal Investigation Branch Officer in Charge Detective Senior Sergeant Chris Hicks revealed that 878 of those offenders were juveniles.

He said the tireless efforts of their Townsville Property Crime Unit had seen overall property crime gradually decrease since October.

Criminal Investigation Branch Officer in Charge Detective Senior Sergeant Chris Hicks.

He said there had been a notable 50 per cent decrease in property crime offences across Townsville last week compared to the previous week.

He said they had dealt with 31 offenders for 113 offences over the last seven days.

Sgt Hicks said a police’s efforts targeting recidivist offenders might be contributing to the dip in crime.

“Our role is to target all offenders, but we also have a number of high-risk recidivist offenders that we target once their back in the community.

“As a result of putting them before the court, we can reduce those offences happening.”

It comes after a spate of car fires reported across Townsville over the weekend.

“I believe there were seven vehicles set fire over the weekend; three of those were related to stolen vehicles, two of those were random acts of wilful damage, and another two were targeted offences by known people to each other,” Sgt Hicks said.

Originally published as Operation Uniform Cygnus: Youths still driving force behind Townsville property crime