Queensland Police Youth Crime Taskforce has 2 officers, struggling to employ staff

A crack police taskforce meant to tackle the state’s youth crime crisis has just two police officers and is struggling to employ staff.

A crack police taskforce meant to tackle the state’s youth crime crisis has just two police officers and is struggling to employ staff.

It comes after the government announced the Youth Crime Taskforce is being restructured, with staff to be moved under a different umbrella and without a highly-ranked senior cop exclusively running it.

This comes just months after the state government vowed to boost the taskforce by $15 million in January, and committed 16 full-time staff to target “high harm offending”.

But the taskforce currently has just two permanent police officers and two civilian staff, with the remaining spots still vacant or being “considered” as part of a 100-day review.

The taskforce – which is currently its own stand-alone unit – will be moved under the Crime and Intelligence Command umbrella.

The taskforce currently has a stand-alone assistant commissioner at the helm, but under the restructure the taskforce would be led by an assistant commissioner who has many portfolios.

The Youth Crime Taskforce was established in January 2023 by the previous Labor government and made permanent in April last year.

But the new LNP government claimed it was not funded past June 30 and committed $15 million over four years to fund 16 full-time positions.

But just four existing staff are on the books, with six sworn police officers and eight unsworn staff yet to be hired.

A Queensland Police spokeswoman said some positions would be filled soon.

“For the eight sworn police positions, two have been permanently filled and six are undergoing pre-advertising processes,” the spokeswoman said.

“In relation to the 12 unsworn staff member positions, two have been permanently filled, eight positions will be permanently filled effective July 1 and two further positions are being further considered as part of the QPS 100 Day Review.”

Premier David Crisafulli said on Wednesday the move was to ensure the staff remained permanent.

“It’s been put in a section that deals with pedos and bikies and organised crime,” he said.

“A Commissioner doesn’t have to go pinching from another place, (it) means he doesn’t have to come with a begging bowl every 12 months to government, it’s permanent.”

Acting Commissioner Shane Chelepy confirmed there would be no changes to the taskforce itself, nor its funding allocation.

“We’ve taken our time to work out the best model for that (taskforce) and best way for that to be integrated,” Mr Chelepy said.

“We’re putting it under a permanent Assistant Commissioner who’s got responsibility for crime in Queensland.

“We’ve changed from a temporary assistant commissioner to a permanent assistant commissioner which provides better immigration.

“We have detective chief superintendents in there as well who will work and make sure we have an integrated response.”

The Youth Crime Taskforce has seven major functions, including prevention, strategy and policy, operational support, diversion, enforcement, governance and reporting and stakeholder engagement.

It has overseen initiatives including Taskforce Guardian, Operation Whiskey Unison, Youth Co-Responder Teams and GPS monitoring.

Originally published as Queensland Police Youth Crime Taskforce has 2 officers, struggling to employ staff