Darling Downs police charge 740 people with 1323 offences under Operation Whiskey Unison

Twelve months ago the Queensland government turned on the overtime funding tap to pay for extra patrols of high-risk areas and that decision has led to hundreds of arrests.

Darling Downs police have charged 740 people with 1323 offences in the 12 months since the Queensland Police Service launched its high-visibility patrol program.

Operation Whiskey Unison was rolled out as part of the solution to ballooning youth crime figures.

It focused on preventing, disrupting, and investigating young offenders through community engagement and patrols at intelligence-driven hotspot locations.

Across the state it led to 11,023 people being arrested on 17,791 charges, including drug, weapons, traffic, property crime and bail offences.

Of the people arrested, 4149 of them were young people, who are facing 7551 charges.

There have been 12,824 proactive activities in the Darling Downs district and 160,406 proactive activities completed by police and police liaison officers across the state, including hotspot patrols, shopping centre and business walk-throughs, bail compliance checks, community engagements and service station drop-ins.

In the Western Downs police arrested 118 people on 384 charges.

The announcement comes as Darling Downs police take in the first class on Project Booyah students.

Run out of the Denise Cable Special School in Newtown, the program takes teens who have disengaged from school or work and puts them through a 12-week cognitive behaviour program.

The classes are run in high-risk communities across Queensland and about 70 per cent of its graduates have gone back to school and stayed out of trouble.

Youth Crime Acting Assistant Commissioner Andrew Massingham said these extra boots on the ground have been integral to supporting officers across Queensland.

“Our officers work tirelessly to deter youth crime and we are taking steps in the right direction, but we know this is just the beginning of what will be a long road of persistent efforts,” Acting Assistant Commissioner Massingham said.

“Everyone from our police liaison officers who engage our multicultural and First Nations communities, to general duties patrolling shopping centres and known crime hotspots, and our district crime prevention teams working hard to assist victims of crime – our frontline does a wonderful job and the result we’ve seen from Whiskey Unison is testament to this.

“We know high visibility is an important deterrent and it all counts towards ensuring the community feels safe.”

The extra patrols targeted high crime locations, such as shopping centres, business, retail and restaurant precincts, service stations and public transport hubs.

They involve a dedicated police presence using marked vehicles, Mobile Police Beats and foot patrols in known hotspot areas, supported by police from the Mounted Unit and Highway Patrol.