Queensland Police Union rejects key recommendation from DV report

Police union boss Ian Leavers says Commissioner Katarina Carroll has been ‘thrown a lifeline’ and needs to get on with the job, while rejecting the idea of civilians being used to investigate integrity issues within the force.

Queensland Police Union president Ian Leavers says Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll needs to “pull up her socks” and start to regain trust, but has rejected the idea of a civilian integrity unit.

He said the commissioner was “thrown a lifeline” today and it was time for her to “get back to basics”.

“She can reset and get on with the job,” he said.

“This is the time for the police commissioner to regain the trust of police and step up and do the job that she is charged with doing,” he said.

Police have seen a lack of leadership in recent times, Mr Leaver said, and most officers were “sick” of sitting through administrative meetings about “hats and ties” rather than dealing with actual crimes.

Queensland Police Union president Ian Leavers says Commissioner Katarina Carroll needs to “pull up her socks”. Picture: Brad Fleet

Mr Leavers said he was the “lone supporter” of the 98 per cent of hardworking officers who he didn’t want to see “thrown under the bus” due to the actions of others.

“I don’t believe someone should lose their job over a stupid comment but the discipline system needs to be better understood by the commissioner and her team,” he said.

He said he rejected the recommendation of a civilian integrity unit within the CCC to investigate police complaints, saying there was already a “robust discipline system in place”.

“The police union will hold the organisations to account to make sure there’s procedural fairness and justice is there,” he said.

He said the current system was “maladministered” and the commissioner needed to be held to account.

“The system does work, it is effective, it is efficient and it’s really important,” he said.

Queensland Police Commissioned Officers’ Union president Dan Bragg said 98 per cent of police did the right thing and it was unfortunate police had been tarnished.

The union represents about 300 senior officers ranked Inspector to Chief Superintendent.

“But having said that, representing commissioned officers in the state, we have a zero tolerance for bigotry and misogyny and any instances of that which arise should be dealt with swiftly, but also fairly and reasonably,” Mr Bragg said.

Mr Bragg said he would be lying if he said “every commissioned officer was doing cartwheels about the leadership of the police service at the moment”.

“There clearly are a number of commissioned officers that are disappointed with the leadership of the police service,” he said.

Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll during a media conference in Brisbane on Monday. Picture: Liam Kidston

“Having said that all the we want is the current leadership to step up to the plate and deal with this issue in a responsive, fair and reasonable way.

“Time will tell. Commissioned officers will certainly back any reforms to improve what we do and how we do it.

“She (Ms Carroll) certainly has the full support of commissioned officers in driving any reforms that make the Queensland Police workplace a better place.”

Mr Bragg said the focus should be supporting operational police in doing their job.

“The reality is domestic violence is a serious issue and I’d hate to think we’d get distracted in conversations about misogyny and racism that are isolated to the detriment of supporting people who are victims of domestic violence,” he said.

But former police detective and Bond University criminologist Terry Goldsworthy said the Commissioner should resign.

“The report highlights numerous examples of deficient leadership, of failings of leadership or instances where she could’ve displayed leadership and didn’t,” he said.

“They can’t be written off to cultural history or instances prior to her coming to power.

“She has been in the role for three years

“She was personally involved in some of those failings and other organisational failings. As the CEO of the organisation, you are responsible for the failings at an organisational level.”

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