Terry Goldsworthy: Katarina Carroll owed it to victims of domestic violence to attend inquiry

It beggars belief Katarina Carroll thought she should not attend an inquiry to give evidence about the culture of the QPS in relation to domestic violence responses, writes Terry Goldsworthy.

Commissioner, you have a problem.

The evidence coming out of the commission of inquiry into Queensland Police Service responses to domestic and family violence (DFV) just keeps getting worse for Katarina Carroll.

This is on the back on a number of horrific DFV murders and the final report of the Women’s Safety and Justice Taskforce.

This week the QPS Commissioner was essentially forced to attend and give evidence to the inquiry.

After initially refusing to attend, the threat of being subpoenaed was required to get the commissioner to attend to give evidence.

This fact is telling. What police commissioner in their right mind would not see it as important and significant, that they as the leader of an organisation, attend and represent that organisation at such a crucial inquiry?

It simply beggars belief that Carroll thought that she should not attend to give evidence about the culture of the QPS in relation to domestic violence responses.

If nothing else, she owed it to the thousands of victims of domestic violence to attend, hear and respond to the issues as raised by the inquiry.

Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll at the commission of inquiry into QPS responses to domestic and family violence. Picture: Liam Kidston

Yet despite critical findings in both the final report of the Women’s Safety Taskforce and coroners’ reports, senior executives of the Queensland Police describe these problems not as a cultural issue, but rather system gaps.

Yet such gaps cost people their lives. Little wonder then that a serving officer told the inquiry he was “devastated” after receiving an email from Ms Carroll denying that there were widespread cultural issues affecting police investigations of DFV.

The culture issues for the QPS start at the top.

Evidence this week showed that senior officers, including the rank of Deputy Commissioner and Chief Superintendent, thought it was entirely appropriate to make sexist and misogynistic comments at formal meetings with other staff.

Comments such as “vagina whisperer” and attempting to make a joke of the use of a sex act to get promoted hardly seem evidence of a healthy organisational culture at the top.

Even more astounding was the fact that within months of making the comment in relation to a sex act, the officer, a superintendent at the time, was promoted to his current rank of Chief Superintendent.

British research show only four per cent of cases of sexual violence reported to police were found or suspected to be false. Picture: Stock

This despite his comment being known. How does the commissioner justify that decision as being reasonable in any circumstances?

Certainly, if similar comments were made in the corporate world, these senior executives would be shown the door, so why has that not happened here?

In evidence to the inquiry, a veteran detective claimed 90 per cent of sexual assault complaints were “completely fabricated or the women have a misunderstanding of sexual assault”.

Such claims are simply a myth. Research for the UK Home Office indicated that only four per cent of cases of sexual violence reported to police were found or suspected to be false.

Other studies conducted in Europe and in the US show rates of between two per cent and 6 per cent.

Consider this: we have no dedicated DFV investigative units, yet in 2021-22 there were 47581 domestic violence-related offences.

In terms of peak criminal events, the harm inflicted by DFV is substantial. For example, in 2019-20, DFV homicides accounted for 38 per cent of homicides in Queensland.

Senior police need to stop treating DFV as an administrative or risk-management issue, and instead treat it as the organisational cultural problem and crime crisis it is.

Katarina Carroll has said she wants tackling domestic violence to be her legacy as Queensland’s first female commissioner.

In the 2020-21 QPS annual report, the highlights of the DFV command include holding a conference and reviewing processes and procedures; no mention is made of any investigative efforts.

Just this week, Ms Carroll was in the media indicating she would be seeking a contract extension as commissioner.

The evidence given to the DV inquiry may now make such an outcome untenable.

Ms Carroll has been in the top job for three years now. The culture of the QPS is hers to own so she will need to be judged by it and what she has failed to do to fix it.

Ms Carroll has stated she wants tackling domestic violence to be her legacy as Queensland’s first female commissioner.

QPS responses to domestic violence may well be her legacy, but for all the wrong reasons.

Terry Goldsworthy is an associate professor of criminology at Bond University and a former senior detective