Police union demands 1650 new officers in Queensland

Queensland’s Police Union has claimed chronic understaffing across the state mean some jobs take officers up to eight hours to attend, while other less urgent call outs are left overnight.

POLICE staffing is at critical levels and 1650 extra officers are needed immediately as jobs take up to eight hours to attend, Queensland’s Police Union sensationally claims.

QPU president Ian Leavers told The Courier-Mail every police station and command across Queensland was understaffed.

Routine Code 3 jobs, which includes welfare checks and car crashes, involved lengthy delays.

“We feel like we are letting the community down,” Mr Leavers said.

“We need an increase of at least 100 police in each and every police region and command across the state to simply address the shortages because at the end of the day the people who suffer are the community when police cannot respond to calls for service.

“We are down a large number of police for all sections of policing due to injuries, scheduled leave, other commitments and secondments and relieving to other positions and there are massive gaps all over every police roster all over the state.”

Mr Leavers said response times for Code 3 jobs could be up to eight hours and less urgent Code 4 jobs were “routinely” handled the next day.

The union has acquired data from across the state and has asked frontline police how many more they need.

At the Brisbane City station, on most shifts there is between 14 and 18 officers, according to the union.

In regional areas, available staff were much lower than the rostered number.

Mr Leavers said child safety areas needed a large boost in numbers, of at least 150 officers, including those who monitored and kept checks on child-sex offenders.

Queensland Police Union president Ian Leavers wants an increase on the number of police officers across all divisions around the state. Picture: AAP/Claudia Baxter

“The Commissioner and the government need to stop deliberately ignoring the massive problem of a lack of police numbers and take ­action before we fall off a cliff,” he said.

Domestic violence, ice and mental health jobs were also taking considerable time for overworked staff, Mr Leavers said.

Police were arriving after parties were finished when called to a noise complaint in some cases.

He said police spent hours “chasing their tail” arresting people on bail.

“In Townsville I believe they are doing over 600 bail checks (to ensure people are complying with their bail conditions) every month,” he said.

“That takes 40-60 minutes per check and then if we find someone, they are put before the courts and released again.”

Mr Leavers said police required minimum staffing models across the state based on population projections and a review of current numbers was necessary.

On top of the 1650 officers, he said an extra 300 police above attrition were needed each year.

“If McDonald’s can project where they are going to put their stores, why can’t the police department? he said.

“We are struggling for calls for service. I’ve just come from an area like Petrie where they take staff away for the watch-house, which depletes those available for first response.”

Mr Leavers said the situation had affected the “psychological wellbeing” of officers and the public was losing faith in the system.

“The public do support the police but they know their hands are tied and they know what part of the criminal justice system is letting them down,” he said.

Victoria is in the middle of a four-year drive to hire an additional 3000 officers.

“I think 1650 is very realistic in Queensland,” Mr Leavers said.

Queensland Police Commissioner Ian Stewart has discretion over his $2.5 billion budget.

Police Minister Mark Ryan said the State Government had provided Commissioner Ian Stewart with a budget of $2.5 billion this year, an increase of 13 per cent since Labor was elected, which was allocated at the Commissioner’s discretion.

“This is the government that has already delivered an extra 300 police and will deliver another 535 personnel by 2021 — this is exactly the same commitment the LNP made at the last election,” he said.

Figures provided by QPS show the average response time for Code 1 jobs was 4.9 minutes, compared to 6.3 for Code 2, 18.4 for Code 3 and 73.8 for Code 4.

Calls to service have risen from 893,173 jobs in 2013 to 1,334,781 in 2018.

A QPS spokeswoman said the service had 11,852 officers and technology was enhancing officers’ ability to meet growing demands for service.

“The service regularly reviews population growth, crime trends and service delivery requirements to ensure a fair and equitable policing service is provided throughout the state,” she said.

UNION DEMAND LIST

■ 1650 police

■ 200 cars

■ 1650 body cameras

■ 6000 QLiTEs

HOW MANY POLICE AND WHERE

■ 100 in education and training

■ 300 in state crime (150 for child protection)

■ 150 for prosecutions, road policing, forensics

■ 100 organised crime

■ 100 each: Cairns, Townsville, Mackay, Rockhampton, Bundaberg/Maryborough, Sunshine Coast, Toowoomba/Ipswich, North Brisbane, South Brisbane, Brisbane-Gold Coast corridor, Gold Coast
■ Minimum staffing model for every policing establishment and a review of staffing levels across all stations

ROSTER

Cairns: 145 rostered, 80 available

Townsville: 108 rostered, 74 available

Rockhampton: 98 rostered, 58 available

Mackay: 76 rostered, 48 available

Toowoomba: 111 rostered, 60 available

Gladstone: 54 rostered, 28 available

Ipswich: 77 rostered, 35 available

Maryborough: 53 rostered, 35 for first response*

Murgon: 23 rostered, 16 available

Maroochydore: 97 rosterrd, 70 available

Brisbane City: 160 rostered, 120 available

Fortitude Valley: 130 rostered, 100 available

Surfers Paradise: 110 rostered, 71 available

Source: Queensland Police Union

*Available for first-response policing at station

POPULATION PROJECTIONS FOR QUEENSLAND

2019 5,079,727

2020 5,153,253

2021 5,224,822

Estimate based on “low” projections