Policelink crisis: Why thousands of desperate calls go unanswered
Is there something more sinister behind the Palaszczuk Government’s move to close the Crime Stoppers call centre, asks Des Houghton.
Opinion
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COUNTLESS thousands of crimes are going unreported in Queensland with disturbing new figures showing nearly 130,000 calls to Policelink were abandoned last year by callers who simply gave up when their calls were not answered.
The delays were also a serious blow to crime prevention, with police missing out on vital tip-offs about crime. So says former policeman Dan Purdie, the MP for the Sunshine Coast electorate of Ninderry.
Crime Stoppers service to close after $250k budget shortfall
Purdie, 45, a policeman for 25 years before his election, says the problem could only get worse.
The Palaszczuk Government’s mysterious decision to stop funding Crime Stoppers could mean the Policelink will be flooded with tens of thousands of extra calls.
I’m told Crime Stoppers, a volunteer organisation, takes 1000 calls a week. Its future is under a cloud.
Tip-offs received by Crime Stoppers have led to offenders being charged with everything from rape and murder to assaults, break-ins, drug possession and weapons offences.
So it makes it all the more bewildering why the Government would seek to block its good work, however unwittingly.
Purdie disputes claims by Police Minister Mark Ryan that Policelink would be able to absorb thousands of extra calls.
“Policelink is already failing,” Purdie says.
“The system is already overwhelmed, so I don’t know how he can possibly say the extra calls can be absorbed.”
Purdie says Policelink staff told him they often began their shifts with 20 or 30 calls already on hold.
“If you are ringing to report a break-in to your car or home, and you are put on hold for 45 minutes you will probably give up.”
He was told many calls related to juvenile offenders.
Calls to Telstra’s triple-0 emergency line are diverted to Policelink unless a crime is in progress.
Purdie says Crime Stoppers was attractive to informants – and members of the public – because calls could be made anonymously.
“All calls to Policelink are recorded,” he says.
Purdie says many crimes would now go unreported.
“The problem is, Policelink often has a 45 minute wait time to answer the call. The wait time can be over one hour.
“Subsequently, nearly 130,000 calls for service to the Qld Police last financial year were ‘abandoned’. There have been days where 400 calls have been ‘abandoned’.
“What if one of those 130,000 had information that may have led to the arrest of a rapist or a paedophile?
“What if it could have solved a murder?
“Most likely, callers were ringing to report a crime which has now gone unreported.”
This will make the official crime statistics look better than they are, he says.
A cynic may even suggest it’s a shrewd political ploy by Labor to “hide” crimes by making it too hard for victims to report them.
Leading Brisbane solicitor David Muir agrees with Purdie that crime detection and prevention efforts will suffer because of a Palaszczuk Government funding cut.
Says Muir: “I am astonished to see the Queensland Crime Stoppers may be closing down this week with the dismissal of employees and volunteers because our governments can’t find $250,000.
“As a former founding director, I am appalled.
“Absorbing the call centre into regular policing is not the answer.”
Around 20 paid Crime Stoppers staff and 45 volunteers may lose their jobs.
Muir says people on the fringes of crime life or whose relatives are involved in unlawful activity prefer to phone Crime Stoppers because it accepts anonymous tip-offs.
The crime reporting crisis was highlighted in reports to Parliament that came before the funding cuts to Crime Stoppers.
Purdie points to Queensland Police figures tabled in the House late last year showing callers sometimes waited more than an hour to speak to someone on the Policelink line.
In answer to a question from the LNP, Ryan said Police Link received 1,149,364 calls in the 2017-18 financial year.
“(A total of) 129,880 were either not answered or disconnected,” he said.
Ryan said Queensland Police was looking for ways to improve service. Policelink operates with a blend of police and civilian operators.
Ryan told Parliament there would be five intakes of new staff in 2019.
It can’t come quick enough for Purdie.
“As reported extensively and articulated by the Ian Leavers, the president of the Queensland Police Union, crime is out of control.
“Juvenile crime is at epidemic proportions.”
Purdie spent much of his career as a detective in child protection.
He says it disturbed him to learn there were only 22 police officers trying to manage and monitor 2700 convicted child sex offenders “at large” in the community. And there was another problem.
“The Queensland Police Service was notorious for having the slowest response time to answer triple-0 calls. Telstra operators were left talking to and comforting victims over the phone waiting for police to pick up the triple-0 calls.”
Opposition Leader Deb Frecklington says the LNP promised an extra $1 million funding for Crime Stoppers before the last election.
“Labor’s refusal to help will pile more pressure on police who are already struggling to cope with a rise in assaults, break-ins and car thefts,” she says.
Member for Lockyer Jim McDonald, another policeman turned politician, was a member of Crime Stoppers for 25 of his 32 years in the force.
He says Crime Stoppers has done a mighty job, often providing sometimes seemingly innocuous pieces of information that helped crack big cases.
He urges people to help police, saying a small piece of information may be the final piece of a crime jigsaw.
CRIME STOPPERS 1800 333 000
P.S...
DRONE DENIAL
A STORY that criminals use drones to ferry heroin and ice into our maximum security prisons appears to be a furphy. A spokeswoman for Corrective Services commissioner Peter Martin said: “There were a number of drone sightings near correctional centres late last year. On every occasion the centres were locked down and the grounds searched. No contraband was found.”
MINE SHUT FOR MONTHS
PEABODY Energy’s North Goonyella coalmine in Queensland’s Bowen Basin will not reopen this year following the underground fire there last September.
It means 350 miners have been stood down on full pay, although some are helping drilling crews above the ground and a small number have been reassigned.
I’m told the fire means Peabody, the largest private-sector coal company in the world, may lose up to $180 million in coal revenues this year. So State Treasury will collect no royalties. A conveyor belt and other valuable equipment was destroyed in the fire and 74 long wall shields were buried in concrete and will stay there for eternity. I understand Peabody’s insurance claims will top $176 million.
Meanwhile, the fire appears to be out. Experts drilled holes 400m deep and dropped in spy cameras for a peek. Seismic testing and gas monitoring all indicate the drama is just about over. Vic Svec, Peabody’s senior vice-president, told me from St Louis, Missouri, that repairs were progressing well.
“We’d expect about two million tons of sales from North Goonyella in 2020,” he said. “We’ve segmented the mine into zones, and the team is executing a multi-phased re-ventilation and
re-entry plan.”
The best that can be said is that no one was hurt in the fire. A build-up of volatile gases was detected early. The warning system worked.
CONGRATULATIONS
I PREDICTED in 2007 that the new children’s hospital proposed for South Brisbane wouldn’t have enough beds.
A Cabinet briefing paper leaked to me confirmed this. Against expert advice the Labor government went ahead and built a “showpiece” hospital in the electorate of then Premier Anna Bligh. It ran over budget and opened prematurely with what was euphemistically called teething problems. Over the years I have reported many bed shortages.
Perhaps it’s because the hospital has such a good reputation that parents bypass regional hospitals to take their children there. Last year I warned that Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital, as it was then called, had no spare beds. I told how doctors had received emergency texts telling them the hospital was at capacity and ordering them to “facilitate as many discharges as possible”. The alerts were triggered by a “temporary surge of patients into the emergency department”. There were 80 alerts sent to doctors last year.
Despite this the hospital and Health Minister Stephen Miles dismissed my complaints. Imagine my surprise then when Miles this week said the hospital was set for “a huge expansion” with 30 extra beds at a cost of $20m. Let me be the first to congratulate Dr Miles on his backflip.
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