Police statistics show that crime in Townsville District is expected to surge past the highest numbers recorded in 2023.

Official Queensland Police Statistics show that there were a total of 46,595 reported crimes in the expansive region for 2025 as of November 30.

This compares to 47,020 for the entirety of 2024 and 47,945 for record-high 2023.

The likely new record tracks with previous reporting by the Townsville Bulletin projecting that crime stats from the first six months of the year placed North Queensland on track to surpass the 2023 total.

Additional data obtained by the Bulletin shows that there were a record average of 11,489 adult prisoners in Queensland jails for the month of September, the most up-to-date figure available.

This constitutes a record high for Queensland, surpassing the previous high 11,278 prisoners as of June 30.

Shadow Police Minister Glenn Butcher said North Queenslanders did not feel any safer despite Premier David Crisafulli “promising he would fix crime by last Christmas”.

“We continue to see too many victims of crime, their homes invaded, increases in weapons offences, domestic violence, drugs and theft,” he said. “The Premier said his four-word slogan would fix this, and the experts were right, it hasn’t.”

The Labor minister said the Crisafulli LNP government should release a report he was given by a “hand-picked legal panel which advised him on how these laws would work”.

QPS said it was focused on “ensuring the community is safe and feels safe”.

“Townsville police will do everything in their power to prevent, deter and disrupt offending, ensuring community safety remains a priority.”

A spokesman attributed the increase in overall reported offences due to “increased proactive police operations and a decrease in victim-related crime”.

“Townsville police have increased proactive policing enforcement targeting drug and firearms offences, in addition to business-as-usual proactive patrols and responding to calls for service,” they said.

“Police have also executed targeted operations, crime prevention strategies and complex investigative work as part of these efforts.”

Operation Kadeem, launched in August, focused on enforcement efforts to continue detecting, deterring and disrupting crime in the district through surge resources.

As at December 15, almost 7000 wandings had been conducted and 55 weapons found.

Since January, the State Flying Squad has been deployed to Townsville 17 times to join local specialist and general duties officers to hit property offenders and support community safety initiatives.

“Officers from the State Flying Squad have charged 493 people with 1555 charges in Townsville,” a QPS spokesman said. “That includes 182 adults on 474 charges, and 311 juveniles on 1081 charges.”

Police Minister Dan Purdie said it was making Queensland safer and rebuilding the police frontline “after Labor’s mission creep saw officers leaving in droves”. “We are restoring safety where you live and have already delivered a 7.8 per cent reduction in victims of crime in the Townsville District in the first 11 months of 2025, including a 7.1 drop in stolen vehicles, 10 per cent drop in break-ins and 30.2 per cent drop in robberies,” he said.