Changes to police pursuits under an elected LNP after 13-year ban

David Crisafulli has promised an extra 1600 police recruits and vowed to find a ‘balance’ between safety and effective crime fighting as some officers push for changes to pursuit policy.

Leader of the Opposition David Crisafulli has pledged to reverse QPS attrition rates. Picture: Liam Kidston

An extra 1600 police recruits will be added to Queensland’s thinning blue line by 2028, with Opposition Leader David Crisafulli also vowing to stem attrition to a few hundred a year.

It comes as the LNP leader also vowed to find a “balance” between safety and allowing police officers to undertake vehicle pursuits after a 13-year ban.

The LNP have promised that if elected it will match the Queensland Police Union’s ask of 1600 extra recruits by 2028.

Mr Crisafulli also confirmed the LNP will slice the Queensland Police Service’s attrition rate — for the whole organisation – to 3 per cent or lower.

The latest QPS annual report revealed its attrition rate for permanent staff in 2023/24 was 10.6 per cent. For police officers specifically the attrition rate was 5.3 per cent.

On permanent staff, this equated to about 1822 people leaving the QPS.

The LNP’s promise to reduce the attrition rate to “historical levels” of 3 per cent or lower will mean the loss of about 516 permanent staff on current headcount.

The LNP have promised that if elected it will match the Queensland Police Union’s ask of 1600 extra recruits by 2028.

“We believe we can do better than what the QPU figure was, we do believe we can, we can hit a higher mark than that,” Mr Crisafulli said.

Mr Crisafulli also promised to get the QPS attrition rate to below 3 per cent.

“Between 2 and 3 (per cent) is historically what it’s been. And I believe that police overwhelmingly want to do the job.

“And I do believe that that is a fair and reasonable figure.”

The Police Minister under an LNP government would be held to those targets Mr Crisafulli confirmed.

The Premier said Queensland was on track to delivering its 2020 commitment of just over 2025 additional police by 2025.

“We extended those targets in our community safety plan earlier this year,” he said.

“I don’t have the exact figures with me, but from recollection, it was about 900 additional police.”

Under the government’s community safety plan, an extra 900 additional police personnel, including 500 sworn officers, will be recruited to the force by mid-2027.

The QPU has also called for a controversial “pit” manoeuvre seen in Hollywood movies and used by United States police officers to drive vehicles off the road to be made legal in Queensland.

“Our police need to be unshackled and given the tools they need to actually arrest these criminals,” QPU boss Shane Prior said in a Nine News report.

Queensland Police Union president Shane Prior. Picture: File

Mr Crisafulli has vowed to consult and listen to the union on the issue. “The balance has to be found to make sure that police can go to work and be safe, but also that young crims don’t have the streets to themselves,” he said.

Questioned about changes to the pursuit policy, Police Commissioner Steve Gollschewski said he would not rule anything out but said there were concerns about the technique.

He said the Queensland’s pursuit policy was implemented after an inquest into deaths – including that of a 13-year-old girl crossing a road – from pursuits.

“Going back to around 2009 we’d seen in the period up until 2009 that 22 persons had lost their lives as a result of police-related pursuits,” Mr Gollschewski said.

“As a result of a variety of investigations, including coronial investigations, we had to look at our practices in that space and we introduced our pursuits policy.

“Since that time we’ve seen two deaths – that’s 15 years later – so there is a really significant statistic in that.

“And that brings me to the point that I want to reinforce. Whatever we do, first and foremost for me as the Commissioner comes the safety of our community and the safety of our officers.

“Now I am open to reviewing these things and in fact since 2022 we’ve had the safe driving working group in place and that policy is continually reviewed.

Mr Gollschewski said there were concerns about the pit manoeuvre which was “essentially a ramming of a vehicle where potentially there is a loss of control of that vehicle”.

Police currently used “boxing in techniques” in Queensland, he said.

“I’m certainly not ruling it out (the pit manoeuvre), we will look at this,” he said.

Mr Gollschewski said there was no other jurisdiction in Australia that used the policy.

“We see the imagery out of places like the United States and we know that sometimes it goes wrong,” he said.

Queensland Police Commissioner Steve Gollschewski . Picture: Steve Pohlner

Premier Steven Miles said his priority would always be ensuring police officers could do their jobs safely, but he committed to meeting with Commissioner Gollschewski about increasing response powers if he is returned to government on October 26.

Mr Miles said he would first look towards expanding current pursuit methods like tyre spikes.

“My first priority is making sure our police get home safely every night,” he said.

“I know that the tyre deflation devices that we’ve been investing in and expanding, they do a really great job, and because they can be remotely activated, they help to keep our police safe.

“So I would first look to expand utilisation of those kinds of resources, but as I say, I’m happy to get advice from police on the other requests.”

Mr Miles dismissed claims he was avoiding talking about youth crime during the election campaign.

“I’ve made youth crime related announcements in Townsville, I extended the funding for the JT Academy, and on the Gold Coast I delivered funding for … an early intervention program there,” he said.

“But the difference here is, because we have a comprehensive plan based on what is working that we announced early in the year, we don’t need to be delivering a series of slogans and thought bubbles throughout the campaign.

“We need to stick with the plan that we know is working, that is driving down offending.”

Police are banned from high-speed chases in Queensland unless there is an imminent threat to life or the offender has committed a serious crime such as murder and the pursuit can be justified.

Originally published as Changes to police pursuits under an elected LNP after 13-year ban