‘Corrupt’ cops target of Qld police policy, not journalists

The state’s top cop says he was taken aback by a Queensland Police policy which lumps journalists alongside criminals as associations police should declare, saying he would review it.

Qld Police Commissioner Steve Gollschewski.

The state’s top cop says he was taken aback by a Queensland Police policy which lumps journalists alongside criminals and religious extremists as associations police should declare, saying he was committed to reviewing the policy.

Queensland Police Commissioner Steve Gollschewski spoke to Peter Fegan on 4BC on Wednesday morning, saying he was “caught a little by surprise” by the policy he says was updated in 2021.

It comes after a leaked internal training manual showed officers were encouraged to disclose associations with journalists where the association was “incompatible with QPS values”. Journalists were listed on the same page alongside criminals, religious extremists and gang members.

But Mr Gollschewski said the policy came off the back of a variety of hearings, including Crime and Corruption Commission investigations, over a number of years which uncovered corrupt and illegal behaviours from police.

“It’s focused on, not so much journalist and police relationships, but corrupt relationships where information was being released in an unlawful way from the Queensland Police Service,” Mr Gollschewski said.

“So that policy got drafted up, and since it came to light last week … so I’ve had a look at it and I was a little surprised to see the way that it was worded that it singled out journalists in the actual policy.

“Because then, when you get into training packages, it goes much more broader than that and focuses on relationships between police and other professions, lawyers, politicians, whoever.”

“The real focus is actually not journalists, it’s about police or members of the police service doing the wrong thing … when they release operationally sensitive information that might compromise an investigation or even put officers’ safety at risk.

“Or even in some instances, break the law by releasing really highly-sensitive information.”

When asked if he would reword the policy, Mr Gollschewski said” “I will get in trouble for this … but what I’m committing to is the policy needs to reflect what it’s about, and it’s about making sure my members understand that they have a responsibility with the information that’s held by the organisation.”

Mr Gollschewski said it was extremely important that police had strong relationships with journalists.

“We have a policy that encourages the Queensland Police to have a really good relationship with journalists and the media, because at the end of the day we can’t do our job without the media.

“My expectation is that you should be asking me all the hard questions.

“I’m not going to tell you guys how to suck eggs, you know your jobs and you’re very professional, but we all know that sometimes people do the wrong thing on all sides

“There were instances occasionally where people have received payments or favours for the release of unlawful information and that was what the CCC had focused on, those really ‘corrupt-type’ relationships that are quite rare but are still a big risk for both of our professions.”

LNP leader David Crisafulli called the policy “dangerous” and “chilling”.

Queensland Premier Steven Miles committed to meeting with Mr Gollschewski about the policy if re-elected this month.