Violent offenders continue to haunt women yet Queensland police staffing lags

Only three more domestic violence officer positions have been approved by Queensland police in recent months while victims reporting multiple breaches feel they are being dismissed “with a tut-tut”.

In July last year, when an inquiry into the Queensland Police Service’s response to domestic violence began, there were 95 approved full-time positions for domestic violence co-ordinator roles within the police service.

In January this year, that number was 98.

The inquiry in November recommended within six months the QPS establish permanent, full-time positions for DV liaison officers where demand required it, in addition to DV co-ordinators.

“We’ve had people with 20 breaches and this is after serious offences like strangulation, grievous bodily harm, sexual assaults,” says Hayley Foster from counselling and support service Full Stop Australia.

“We’ve got people in those situations calling up and reporting and the breach doesn’t get acted on, either by police, or when it does get brought by police to court, the magistrates dismiss it again with a tut-tut.

“That’s run-of-the-mill, that’s every day in Queensland.”

The QPS said it was working on an unprecedented program of reforms following the inquiry, and has established a Domestic Family Violence sub-program as part of work being done by the independent Office of the Special Coordinator for Police and Emergency Services Reform.

As of February, there were 12,295 sworn officers across the state – a concerning figure in contrast to 98 DV officers, Foster said, given up to 80 per cent of an officer’s work was responding to domestic or sexual violence.

The QPS was yet to clarify how many of the funded positions have been filled.

“We keep saying it’s serious, but if something’s really serious, then we direct resources to it,” Foster said.

The inquiry into the police response to domestic violence also revealed damning evidence of how officers treated their own female colleagues.Credit: Shutterstock

Speaking at a press conference on Thursday, Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll conceded some officers would only respond to domestic violence during their shift.

“I look at some of my districts and the majority of their work is domestic violence – code one and two domestic violence. In their shift, that’s all they respond to,” Carroll said, adding it was “horrendous” seeing more than 138,000 occurrences of domestic violence across the state in the past year.

However, Carroll said following the inquiry, the QPS had shifted to a victim-centric and trauma-informed approach when responding to domestic violence.

A QPS spokeswoman said hundreds of extra positions would be funded to provide specialist support, advocacy and liaison services for people affected by domestic violence.

In February, Police Minister Mark Ryan informed parliament there were 110 approved permanent positions for DV co-ordinators as at January 31.

Nadia Bromley, from the state’s Women’s Legal Service, says an ongoing issue for police is that while management might be able to create positions, it does not always fill them.

“Change takes time. But really, that investment in training and investment in actually getting people into roles is such a dire need,” she says.

“It’s disappointing we haven’t seen that move as quickly as we might have liked and that’s one of the reasons the inquiry time bound all of those recommendations because they recognise how important it is to do things quickly.”

The number of full-time DV positions has roughly doubled since 2021, according to police data, but Foster said most of the domestic violence work was conducted by frontline general duties officers.

“It’s fair to say that the response from Queensland police is not consistent,” she says.

“There are places where it’s not easy to access a domestic violence liaison officer.”

Between 2021 to 2022, more than 52,000 domestic violence orders were made.

This year, that number is at more than 38,000.

The inquiry into the QPS response to domestic violence also revealed damning evidence of how officers treated their own female colleagues, but Bromley says there hasn’t been a huge shift, in either the culture or the push to fill DV jobs.

“I think one of the biggest problems is that it’s still wildly inconsistent,” she said.

She said the training implemented for police should be extended to judicial officers, with most cases going through the Magistrates Court.

“Unfortunately, the experience of courts can be very inconsistent depending on where you are,” Bromley said.

“People should accept the same standard of justice and the same treatment of matters, no matter where they are.”

Support is available from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732).