While it couldn’t be described as a poisoned chalice, it has at times resembled a job that comes with its fair share of incendiary devices attached.

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This worrying characteristic of one of the state’s most important appointments began to gather momentum during the 11-year tenure of the thoroughly corrupt commissioner number 11 – Francis Erich (Frank) Bischof, out of Toowoomba, from 1958 to 1969.

Then the fish started to rot from the head during the era of commissioner number 14 – Terence Murray Lewis, out of Ipswich, from 1976 to 1987. Lewis would go on to be jailed for corruption following revelations at the Fitzgerald Inquiry.

Since then, the seat has been a hot one, though it has expectedly cooled since the heady days of Bischof and Lewis. Both men abused the power of their positions. Bischof died with a haunted mind. Lewis entered his twilight years as a convicted felon, and lost everything. He will celebrate his 91st birthday tomorrow, though he was actually born in a leap year.

As for Ian Duncan Hunter Stewart, our 19th commissioner, how has he fared in his almost seven years in the job?

By and large it appears, at least to the general public, that he managed to run a relatively steady ship. His tenure traversed two vastly different governments, that of the LNP’s Campbell Newman and now the ALP’s Annastacia Palaszczuk. The Premier has often expressed how much she respects Commissioner Stewart.

Still, for decades after the Lewis imbroglio, probably the biggest measure of success in the job of police commissioner in the Sunshine State was the number of times you or your officers did not make news headlines.

To be seen and not heard was one of the position’s most redeeming virtues.

Stewart doesn’t necessarily fall into that category. Indeed, he may have been our first “Twitter commissioner”.

His Twitter feed remains a virtual diary of his commissioner’s diary. The endless functions, toy drives, commemorations, annual pilgrimages, ribbon-cutting ceremonies and duties with the police minister of the day.

His predecessor Terry Lewis’ famously controversial commissioner’s diaries (pen and paper, not digital) were similarly loaded with a dizzying array of public engagements.

Still, Stewart remains a vigilant tweeter, and at 6.06am on Christmas Day last year, he posted:

And on September 22, 2018, he waxed lyrical about the Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers.

This week, announcing his retirement, Stewart curiously described his 46 years in the QPS as “a very interesting journey”. The use of the word “interesting” is interesting. It implies an undivulged freight.

But semantics aside, Stewart has at least been a realist.

On the 25th anniversary of the handing down of Tony Fitzgerald’s epochal corruption inquiry report on July 3, 2014, Commissioner Stewart said it would be naive to think that any police force was free of the taint of illegality and corruption.

He reportedly admitted that the force had changed almost beyond recognition since Lewis commanded about 5000 police officers at the time of his sacking in 1989.

“I think I’d be stupid to say there isn’t (corruption),” he told a radio station. “We still have complaints made against police, although I’m very grateful for the fact that complaints have been dropping for some time now.

“I think partly that’s because of the professionalism of our organisation. But there’ll always be those within the organisation, as with every profession, who just don’t play by the rules.

“The records that electronic communication give(s) us, the way we communicate with and engage with our community has changed dramatically since those times. It’s a whole different world.”

That may be so in some quarters, but not in others, and certainly not in the way that the QPS has honoured certain aspects of its history. At some point in the recent past, someone made the decision to reinstate Terry Lewis’ framed photograph to the honour roll of Queensland police commissioners in the upper echelon of headquarters down at Roma St in Brisbane’s CBD.

While there is no denying Lewis was a part of the service’s history, albeit an unsavoury one, the gesture hardly offers young recruits the ideal role model in that instance.

What is “interesting” about the genial Stewart’s departure is the date he has chosen to walk away from the job. His last day will be Sunday, July 7.

That’s thirty years since Lewis was charged with multiple counts of corruption. And it’s almost precisely 30 years since Fitzgerald handed his historic reforming report to then Queensland premier Mike Ahern.

Is there a message in his chosen departure date? Is he reminding us to remain vigilant into the future?

Commissioner Stewart may have more of an astute eye towards history than we know.