Police union calls for scrapping of ‘streamlining’ project

Queensland’s police union says kids are paying the price for a streamlining project trial which has seen a reduction in its child protection and first response teams.

Queensland’s police union says fewer police are able to respond to emergencies under a streamlining project trial and have called for its scrapping before its statewide rollout.

The Service Delivery Redesign Project (SDRP) – aimed to reduce pressure on frontline workers, remove duplication and improve efficiencies – was introduced as a trial in the Moreton district in February.

It came after an extensive review into the service by consultant Neil Greenfield in 2019 – which the union estimates cost hundreds of thousands of dollars – which was commissioned by Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll.

Queensland Police Union secretary Mick Barnes told The Courier-Mail the statewide rollout had been paused three times due to “ongoing deficiencies”.

He said staff were being placed into non-frontline work on “alternate duties” and said the project was a failure.

Queensland Police Union general secretary Mick Barnes. Photo Steve Pohlner

As a result he said criminal investigation branch detectives were having difficulties responding to high-risk threats requiring the Special Emergency Response Team (SERT) and child protection officers were not able to properly respond to child protection matters.

“There are now fewer police on the frontline as they have been taken out of ‘first responder’ positions and reallocated to other roles so I’m calling for this failed project of SDRP to be scrapped and for a return to the way things were done before SDRP and where police are returned to frontline, first response roles,” Mr Barnes said.

“There are now less police on-road responding to calls for service now in the Redcliffe area than what there were 35 years ago in the mid-1980s.

“Officers’ ability to do child protection has been reduced and it places at risk those sections of the community, the kids.

“The service will be able to quote more files are being cleared up in a greater time but that doesn’t help anybody if they ring triple-0.”

Mr Barnes said in one instance a crew was wrestling with an armed offender and there was no one able to help.

A speed camera operator and a crew from another region responded but he said the incident could have “easily ended with a fatal outcome”.

Mr Barnes said frontline staffing levels were below minimum levels, which was due to the SDRP and the Covid-19 policing response.

Investigators were also being ‘deskilled’ by having to issue paperwork. Some were diverted to “alternate response team”, in which they told people to come into the station for statements, while others were in a “volume crime team” which got copies of crime reports and organised paperwork.

The union says Officers’ ability to do child protection had been impacted.

A Queensland Police Service spokesman said the new model was designed so police could respond to demand through flexible rostering to achieve the best outcome for the community.

No police resources had been taken away and there had been an “allocation of growth in police personnel” since the inception of SDRP. There were 672 police officers in the district at the end of June.

There were plans for a replacement police facility at Dayboro with 13 jobs.

The spokesman said and 91 per cent of incidents were responded to within 12 minutes.

For urgent Code 1 and 2 jobs, the median response time from call received to on scene time on the Sunshine Coast was 9 minutes, Ipswich 8 minutes, Darling Downs 8 minutes and Moreton 8 minutes for the current financial year, the spokesman said.

The overall rate of total reported crime in 2020-21 decreased by 22 per cent, or 8511 offences, compared to 2019-20.

Child protection officers were allocated on a “priority basis to ensure a timely response to matters involving young people at risk”.

The spokesman said SERT was “regularly” used and the timing of the deployment was a tactical decision with community safety being the overriding priority.

The volume crime teams developed through SDRP were providing a “focused investigative response to property crime offences across Moreton District”.

Mr Barnes said he was disappointed to hear SDRP would be rolled out to the Mackay district in January despite not being able to staff current requirements without relying on stations in the Pioneer Valley.