The Sheriff’s Act (Queensland 2026) is the framework that enables communities across the state to elect or appoint Sheriffs to serve their communities.

Each local Sheriff’s Office operates within its Local Government Area (LGA). It is led by a locally elected Sheriff, who may employ Deputies, and other Sheriff’s Officers & staff who live and work in the same community.

Sheriffs are not police. Their role is civic and community-focused:

• Enforcing court orders and warrants of possession

• Responding to public disturbances and compliance issues

• Managing summary offences and local ordinances

• Providing trained first response when required

Every local Sheriff’s Office has clear limits: its jurisdiction ends at the LGA boundary; its authority comes only from existing state legislation; and its accountability is to the people who elect it.

The model fills long-standing service gaps in civil enforcement and community order — especially in regional and rural areas where local presence and local trust are critical.
It doesn’t duplicate police. It complements them.

Without adding to — or granting any extra powers within — an already overworked system, it simply relieves QPS and refocuses what laws and powers we already have, back on safety, order, and trust within the community.