The Queensland government is looking to address a shortage of police by recruiting officers from overseas.

The government announced this week they would attempt to lure 500 serving police officers from overseas every year for the next five years.

Commissioner Katarina Carroll said the officers recruited would not need to become Australian citizens or even gain permanent residency.

As long as they were serving officers in overseas countries, they would be given a four-month training course and then employed across Queensland as constables.

Foreign Police are being brought into Australia to police the public in QLD. This will become the norm nationwide as other States will look to adopt similar measures.

Unsurprisingly the media seems chirpy about the entire thing. 🤡 🌎 pic.twitter.com/sIWPVFwDsL

— Rukshan Fernando (@therealrukshan) February 23, 2023

"Allowing experienced officers from any country the chance to work for the Queensland Police Service and bring their own unique experiences, knowledge and skills to our organisation,” Carroll said.

"We're looking for police across the world."

She said police from the UK, Canada and New Zealand would be targeted.

The move is a bid to address a chronic shortage of police staff. Internal data from Queensland Police, made public this week, revealed that 1200 new recruits would be needed this year alone just to keep up with demand.

Seven Queensland police stations were understaffed.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk promised in 2020 to recruit 1,450 additional officers by 2025, but only 92 officers had been added to the force since then.