Queensland’s crime-fighting Flying Squad triples in size to tackle hot spots

Almost 60 police officers will be poised to fly anywhere in Queensland to act as a rapid response unit to tackle spikes in local crime, Premier David Crisafulli announced on Sunday in his government’s latest attempt to lower the state’s crime rate.

Speaking in a police hangar at Archerfield Airport, Crisafulli said the State Flying Squad, to be based in south-east Queensland, would assist local police when situations become overwhelming.

“This is more than tripling the capacity of the flying squad,” he said. “It will go from 17 to 58 permanent officers – and it will be permanent.

Taskforce Guardian rapid response officers head off on a crime-busting operation last October.Credit: QPS

“Gone are the days of them having to continue to come back year upon year for resources to deal with these issues. It will be embedded for the long term.”

The long term would be five years – beyond this term of government – at a cost of $32.5 million.

The flying squad would absorb officers attached to operations such as Taskforce Guardian, a rapid response team dealing with youth crime surges, and Operation Whiskey Legion, a statewide boost to high-visibility policing in crime-affected communities.

A Queensland Police Service Beechcraft King Air at Cairns Airport last June.Credit: Jonathan Williams

“The capacity of both of those operations will be subsumed into this,” Queensland Police Deputy Commissioner Cheryl Scanlon said.

“As we have it operating at the moment, it’s doing very good things for us across the state, but having the permanency means I won’t be drawing on the resources I draw on from some of the specialist squads.”

Of the 58 officers in the flying squad, 41 will be new full-time-equivalent positions.

Crisafulli acknowledged the staffing challenges Queensland police faced.

“There is no doubt that there has been a real crisis when it comes to the overall number of police in this state, because whilst the pipeline has been sound, the level of attrition has been far too high,” he said.

“One of the tasks that I’ve given [Police Minister] Dan [Purdie] is to make sure he deals with that issue of attrition.

“Currently, attrition is running at nearly 6 per cent, and that’s just far too high. Our vision is to make sure we can pull that down.”

Purdie said the expanded squad would recruit officers prepared to go into “hot spots” across the state at short notice.

“[It won’t be] detectives being taken off a complex fraud or murder investigation being sent out on a 10-day deployment, which is what has been happening with Whiskey Legion up until now,” he said.

Some could also be sourced from interstate, with Queensland Police advertising for recruits among Victoria’s police ranks.

“I think people have seen the message interstate that there’s a new government in Queensland,” Purdie said.

“We do support the police. We are tough on crime. We’re going to give the police the tough laws they need, and the resources they need.”

Comment has been sought from the Labor opposition.

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