Northern Police Region Assistant Commissioner Brett Schafferius, acknowledging this weekend's tragedy in which 22-year-old Jennifer Board was killed, passed on his condolences to her family and friends, and acknowledged the hurt and grief in the local community.
"I want to assure the community that Townsville police remain intent on targeting repeat offenders and are enhancing their dedicated focus on property crime with further high visibility policing operations targeting high-risk recidivist property offenders.
"We have established a task force dedicated to stopping criminal and antisocial behaviour in our city, and in particular, to focus in on the small cohort of repeat offenders who continue to show disregard for the law and the community.
"The task force, working under Operation Tango Pheasant, is up and running as of today and will run 24/7 with a team of experienced officers, including detectives, uniformed police, traffic officers and intel specialists."
Townsville officers from the Criminal Investigation Branch, Child Protection and Investigation Unit, Rapid Actions and Patrols, Tactical Crime Squad and general duties police will be central to the task force operations.
The task force will be supported by a team of officers from the Crime and Intelligence Command with further resources to be considered as the operation continues.
The task force will target known high-risk recidivist offenders through intelligence-based strategies including; targeting their known addresses, locations where they frequent, their associates and other public spaces. The operation will be conducted on a 24-hour basis to ensure a dedicated police presence at all times.
Roadside traffic operations will be strengthened in and around these areas to value-add to the efforts.
"Community safety remains the number one priority for Queensland Police. All policing operations within Townsville are focused on targeting those offenders who have no regard for the safety of the broader community," Assistant Commissioner Schafferius said.
