Crocs and robbers... it's all in a day's work for police

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They are more likely to be out catching robbers. So at 1m long and with very sharp teeth, Alcatraz isn't the kind of public menace police are normally asked to catch.

But when a north Queensland resident called Innisfail police to report the crocodile was in his backyard, trying to bite his terrier, the task fell to local officers.

Constable Adam Green and his partner Renee Schneider were called to the address around 1am local time on Monday. Green crouched over the beast from behind and put a broom stick over its jaws, so they could be taped shut.

Innisfail Acting Senior Sergeant Kieran Self said the officers emerged unharmed from the job, although the owner of the property received a few scratches.

"It wasn't a very large crocodile but I do believe it put up a fight," he said.

The crocodile earned the name Alcatraz at the police station after escaping from a potato sack - its jaws remained shut and it was in a locked room at the time.

North Queensland is crocodile country but Self said it was unusual for police to be called to capture crocodiles.

He said the croc's arrival had caused "a bit of excitement at the station" before wildlife officers came to collect it.

- AAP