Former bikini model suing Queensland Police Service for $400,000

FIVE police officers, as well as the state of Queensland, have been hit with a lawsuit by a former bikini model, who now fears for her safety following the alleged actions of the police.

Renee Eaves, a former model turned crime fighting crusader, is suing the Queensland Police Service for $400,000. Picture: Mark Cranitch.

A FORMER bikini model whose personal file was accessed by police officers 1400 times has launched a six-figure lawsuit against the Queensland Police Service.

Model-turned justice crusader Renee Eaves is suing for $400,000 in damages after discovering that more than 300 officers accessed her private information.

She now fears for her safety and is moving house after learning some of the officers accessing her file have histories of misconduct.

Renee Eaves taking part in the 1999 Miss Bikini World competition.

The lawsuit includes action against five individual officers as well as the state of Queensland.

Ms Eaves, who previously won a stalking case against a rogue cop, has accumulated nothing more than a handful of traffic infringements in the past decade and said she felt bitterly let down by an eight-month internal affairs investigation which has so far resulted in no disciplinary action against a single officer.

It comes amid growing criticism of the QPS’s internal affairs section, the Ethical Standards Command.

Ms Eaves on Wednesday said she was unable to comment on the lawsuit but she has previously been scathing of the lack of action taken by the QPS since she filed a Right to Information application to see if officers had been making unauthorised searches on her file.

Ms Eaves, who now supports others in their own battles against the QPS, said no one had even bothered to take a statement from her since she lodged a complaint with the Crime and Corruption Commission last year. She said her situation was not uncommon among people who had gone to the CCC or Ethical Standards for help.

The Courier-Mail has reported several other complaints against the QPS which have become bogged down in investigations lasting months or even years.

In one case, a former federal police officer allegedly assaulted by police during a holiday in Surfers Paradise last June paid $500 to file his own witness statement at the Australian embassy in Germany (where he now lives) as his frustrations with a lack of progress from ESC continued. Police have refused to reimburse the cost of lodging the statement.

A QPS spokeswoman said officers from ESC “investigate all matters with due diligence and the utmost integrity”.