Six complaints in two weeks: Probe into police enters fourth week

Six complaints about police officers allegedly linked to domestic violence were made in a two-week period in June to Queensland’s corruption watchdog.

But an executive from the Crime and Corruption Commission concurred at a probe into police responses to violence that under established procedures, the CCC investigated less than 1 per cent of cases of complaints about police.

In the fourth week of the Independent Commission of Inquiry into Queensland Police Service Responses to Domestic and Family Violence, the hearing was told one of the cases of alleged corrupt conduct included rape and strangulation, and another officer was accused of accessing child exploitation material.

“Both matters have been referred back to the QPS to deal with but subject to a public interest review, so they’re being monitored by the CCC,” said Elizabeth Foulger, the commission’s executive director of integrity services.

In Foulger’s statement, the CCC submitted that between July 2020 and May 2022 it had received more than 370 complaints over police responses to domestic violence cases, containing more than 900 separate allegations.

In that period, another 98 complaints were made about violence in which officers themselves were allegedly involved.

Foulger said complaints made about police officers often would be a “misunderstanding”.

“Often we’ll get a complaint that an officer has failed to investigate, to take a complaint of domestic violence, and then we’ll have a look on the computer system, and we can see that a complaint of domestic violence has, in fact, been made,” she said.

When asked by Women’s Legal Service lawyer Kylie Hillard how the CCC assessed complaints, including ones where victims were regularly turned away at police stations or repeated calls for help were ignored, Foulger said a range of factors were taken into consideration.

She said the CCC would consider the information the complainant had given, what was available on the police system QPRIME, and if the officer had relevant history.

But she could not confirm if every complaint was assessed.

“I would be reluctant to say that every single one of those [is checked], but it’s a routine check to have a look,” she said.

“If the prime allegation is a failure to take action in relation to a [domestic violence] complaint, then I would expect a complaints’ officer to do a check on QPRIME to ascertain if a complaint was, in fact, taken on that date.”

The inquiry before Commissioner Deborah Richards continues this week in Brisbane.