Queensland police say they're protecting the broader Aurukun community when they decide not to break up fist fights in the troubled indigenous town.
One elder has accused police of entrenching a culture of violence when they let members of rival clans settle disputes in so-called one-on-one "fair fights" that don't involve weapons.
The approach adopted by police has been thrust into the spotlight by video footage that shows five officers standing by while local women exchange blows in an Aurukun street.
Local elder Phyllis Yunkaporta says police inaction is entrenching a view among young people that violence is acceptable.
"They are here to enforce law and we want the police to start doing things properly for us," Ms Yunkaporta has told the ABC.
"It impacts on the very lives of our youngsters because they are standing there and see the fighting happening. It's cemented into their young brains that this is the way to go."
Senior police deny condoning violence and say that when a disturbance is reported officers attend.
But they say breaking up fair fights, in a complex community of five rival clans, risks more widespread violence breaking out.
"On occasion, the temperature within the community can raise quite rapidly because of one minor incident," northern region Assistant Police Commissioner Paul Taylor told AAP on Tuesday.
"Often, when police get to these incidents, there are large numbers of spectators and the complexities in Aurukun mean those people are all related to the combatants, and they are highly emotionally charged."
He said police had to carefully consider whether to intervene in fair fights, which he said community members sometimes encouraged.
"If they do intervene, are they going to take it from a fair fight between two individuals to having a large mob, who are highly emotive, start fighting?
"On occasion, for the greater good of the community, it's extremely difficult for us to intervene."
Mr Taylor said 52 public nuisance offences, many involving fair fights, had been recorded in Aurukun this financial year and the figure proved police did step in when necessary.
Police have strengthened their presence in Aurukun after the school's principal was carjacked at night last week, allegedly by three students, when he went to help two teachers who complained about loitering youths.
Twenty-five school staff were evacuated to Cairns and the school was closed following the drama, but they are due to return to work on Thursday.
Mr Taylor said a small minority of Aurukun residents were driving crime and violence, and police were working closely with elders, community leaders and agencies to resolve tensions, and crack down on the illegal supply of alcohol in the town.
