Public safety charity Crime Stoppers Queensland will undergo significant changes to its community outreach model, which volunteers have described as “a slap in the face”.

Members were informed via Teams meetings on Thursday that the volunteer-led, locally based committee model, which has operated for more than 30 years, will be phased out.

The organisation today confirmed those committees will be replaced by a smaller number of local volunteer ambassador roles, which it said would be “more centralised, scalable and digitally capable”.

Mladen Bosnic, chair of the Mareeba-based Far Northern Crime Stoppers committee, slammed the move.

He estimates the work of some 250 volunteers Queensland-wide will now be done by around 15 people, one ambassador for each regional police district.

“I can’t see how one ambassador is going to get around the region that we cover,” Mr Bosnic said.

The Far Northern committee has 45 active members and promotes the anonymous crime reporting service to communities across the Tablelands and Cape York Peninsula regions by attending events and relationship-building with local councils.

Mladen Bosnic at a Crime Stoppers event in Mareeba with police from the Far Northern region. (Supplied: Queensland Police News)

Crime Stoppers Queensland CEO David Hansen said moving away from traditional event-based outreach to a greater digital media presence will improve the audience reach and impact of campaign messaging.

“The organisation needs to evolve in response to changing community engagement patterns, technology and crime itself,” Mr Hansen said.

“Our challenge is that the way people engage with organisations has changed significantly, as have the regulatory and technology environments.

“More awareness and reporting is driven through digital and media channels, while governance, safety and compliance requirements have also increased.”

But Mr Bosnic believes face-to-face engagement is the only way to build trust in the small regional towns and Indigenous communities of far north Queensland.

“The digital line does not work and will never work. They want one model; I doubt very much that one model fits all for the state,” he said.

“It doesn’t work for law enforcement, and it doesn’t fit when you’re trying to promote the message of public safety.”

Uncertain future for volunteers

Crime Stoppers Queensland has confirmed there are no changes to how the public can anonymously report information — the phone number, online reporting channels and anonymity protections remain the same.

Members of the public can report crimes or suspicious activity anonymously via the Crime Stoppers phone line. (Supplied: Crime Stoppers Queensland)

Crime Stoppers Queensland has not given a timeline for the changes; however, the organisation said it would provide more communication about the new roles and that it recognised the transition would be “significant” for many volunteers who had provided decades of “highly valued” service.

Mr Bosnic said his local committee members had been left disillusioned by the move and unsure whether they would consider applying for any new role.

“A lot of them are devastated with what’s happening … they feel it’s a bit of a slap in the face,” he said.

“It’s hard to see how people are going to have faith in the board and future decisions even if they were to take up the ambassador role.”