Qld police Ethical Standards Command officer accused of misconduct

A Queensland police officer who investigates internal complaints has been accused of misconduct and unlawful disclosure of information.

A high-ranking Queensland police officer who investigates complaints into other officers has been placed under investigation himself after being accused of misconduct and unlawful disclosure of information, among other allegations.

Detective Senior Sergeant David Cousins, 55, from the Ethical Standards Command’s (ESC) Internal Investigations Group, will now face an internal disciplinary hearing over some of the allegations, according to the Queensland Police Service (QPS).

Sen Sgt Cousins was placed under investigation earlier this year after separate complaints were submitted to the Crime and Corruption Commission (CCC) about his alleged conduct while investigating bullying claims lodged against some Gold Coast officers in recent years.

The Courier Mail understands the veteran police officer had been accused by some Gold Coast officers – who were the subject of some of his inquiries – of misconduct, unlawful disclosure of confidential information and reprisal – including against an officer protected under the Public Interest Disclosure Act, formerly known as the Whistleblower’s Act.

In April, allegations of misuse of authority and failure of duty, also lodged with the CCC, were referred back to the ESC to be investigated internally.

Det Sen Sgt Cousins was cleared of those allegations this month.

At one point, an ESC officer was investigating claims and counterclaims of workplace bullying among several different officers at the Runaway Bay police station on the Gold Coast. Picture: Supplied

CCC officials and Sen Sgt Cousins declined to comment.

The police officers who submitted the complaints also declined to comment, and asked not to be named.

Their allegations stemmed from a situation that started in 2016 involving multiple officers then-stationed at the Runaway Bay police station on the Gold Coast, as well as a related hearing in Brisbane’s Queensland Industrial Relations Commission in 2020 where an industrial commissioner later found Sen Sgt Cousins had “misrepresented evidence” to one of the complainants, to the detriment of that officer.

According to QIRC documents, in 2016 a shift supervisor from the Runaway Bay station filed a complaint with the ESC expressing the concerns of up to five officers who reported a senior constable’s alleged erratic behaviour, and the suspected reasons behind her behaviour.

That email was referred to the CCC, where it was determined the concerns fell under the parameters of whistleblowing, with the shift supervisor then awarded PID status because he was the officer who emailed the report to the ESC.

A month later, the senior constable then lodged a complaint against the shift supervisor, accusing him of workplace harassment, according to the court documents.

Detective Senior Sergeant David Cousins. Picture: Supplied

Sen Sgt Cousins was initially assigned to investigate the complaint against the senior constable, with her matter dismissed in 2017.

The ESC officer then handled the senior constable’s complaint against the shift supervisor, along with taking carriage of what became several other bullying claims and counterclaims involving multiple different officers at Runaway Bay station in ensuing years.

The shift supervisor, who had been awarded PID protection, was charged with misconduct by Sen Sgt Cousins later in 2016, after he was accused of omitting some medical information about the senior constable in his email.

An assistant commissioner dismissed that charge in 2019.

By 2020, two of the complainants had successfully filed worker’s compensation claims after suffering from a psychological injuries they said were either caused as direct result of or in part because of treatment by Sen Sgt Cousins.

The shift supervisor’s approved WorkCover claim eventuated in a QIRC hearing in August 2020 after the QPS appealed the decision.

According to court documents, one reason the QPS appealed was because the allegation the shift supervisor “engaged in negative workplace behaviour towards members of the Gold Coast Police District, including (the senior constable),” was upheld by the ESC in 2019.

QIRC commissioner Jacqueline M. Power. Picture: Supplied

But Industrial Commissioner Jacqueline M. Power dismissed the QPS appeal in October 2021 after she concluded the officers’ psychological injury was sustained as a direct result of unreasonable management action on the part of Sen Sgt Cousins, with particular regard to “the misrepresentation of evidence” during his investigation into the complaint against the senior constable’s alleged behaviour, according to the court documents.

A transcript from the 2020 hearing, contained in the publicly available appeal court documents, shows Sen Sgt Cousins told the shift supervisor during a 2016 interview that none of the other witnesses he reported as having expressed concerns about the senior constable agreed with what he had claimed in his email to the ESC.

But transcripts of the interviews Sen Sgt Cousins conducted with those five officers were provided in court and showed that several of them did agree with and substantiate the concerns reported by the shift supervisor.

Ms Power deemed this to have contributed to the officer’s injury.
“It is clear that the evidence provided by the other officers was misrepresented to the Second Respondent, as confirmed in (Assistant Commissioner Brian Codd’s) evidence that it was ‘not an accurate reflection of the interviews with those officers. That’s certainly the case’,” she wrote in her decision.

“After carefully reviewing the evidence, I am not satisfied that the investigation was conducted in a reasonable way. Whilst I note that an investigation may be imperfect without being considered unreasonable, the misrepresentation of evidence to the Second Respondent was a significant failure and could not constitute management action taken in a reasonable way.”

Queensland Police Service Commissioner Katarina Carroll. Picture: David Clark

In her decision, Ms Power agreed with the QPS’s stance with regards to PID protection status not preventing an officer from being investigated, and found it was reasonable for Sen Sgt Cousins to conduct an inquiry into the reason why the shift supervisor had sent the email about the senior constable.

“The PID Act does not prohibit an investigation into matters disclosed in these circumstances and consequently, the decision by the Appellant to investigate the Second Respondent’s email of 4 May 2016 constitutes reasonable management action,” Ms Power wrote in her findings.

Repeated requests to interview QPS Commission Katarina Carroll or Assistant Commissioner Cheryl Scanlon about the investigation into Sen Sgt Cousins were denied.

The majority of 18 questions instead written and submitted to the QPS via email about the allegations and general investigation process when an ESC officer was involved, were not answered.

A written statement was instead provided by a QPS spokeswoman.

“The Queensland Police Service is able to confirm that a complaint was received in relation to a Detective Senior Sergeant from Ethical Standards Command,” the statement said.

“The matter was independently investigated, by investigators external to Ethical Standards Command. This complaint was referred to the Crime and Corruption Commission.

“The officer has been referred to an internal disciplinary hearing which is dealt with by the Office of State Discipline.

“Ethical Standards Command are unable to provide comment on the discipline hearing process as it is an independent process governed by the Police Service Administration Act 1990.”

The spokeswoman said Sen Sgt Cousins was “completing alternative duties outside of the Ethical Standards Command until the disciplinary action is resolved.”

Some of the accusations stemmed from officers stationed on the Gold Coast in recent years. Picture: Glenn Hampson

She also said the “matter was in no way connected” to the recent independent Commission of Inquiry into Queensland Police Service responses to Domestic and Family Violence.

In an internal email sent to all QPS staff on October 13, in the midst of the Commission of Inquiry, Ms Carroll described examples of internal bullying and other behaviours among QPS employees aired at the commission as being “disgraceful.”

“What absolutely cannot continue are the disgraceful examples we have heard in recent weeks of our members experiencing a range of deeply disturbing behaviours including sexism, misogyny, racism and bullying at the hands of fellow members,” she wrote in the email.

“This behaviour will not be tolerated. If you are a perpetrator of this behaviour, you have no place in this organisation and this behaviour needs to be called out. To anyone impacted by this behaviour, I am truly sorry.”

In the email, the police commissioner said reform had already commenced.

“It’s extremely important you have confidence in coming forward about inappropriate workplace behaviours. It’s equally important that when matters are reported, we ensure they are dealt with appropriately,” Ms Carroll wrote.

But former police sergeant and officer advocate Kate Rasmussen, 45, said the commission of inquiry highlighted how many officers were “too frightened” to report adverse behaviours within the workplace.

“The domestic violence commission of inquiry discovered that there is a toxic culture of bullying and covering up the wrongdoing of police, and that police are too frightened to come forward,” she said.

Multiple claims and counterclaims were filed among different police officers at a Gold Coast station in recent years. (Generic photo). Picture: Supplied

“And, here we have an officer who reported the alleged wrongdoing of a colleague, was afforded PID status, only to have the investigating officer from ethical standards (allegedly) interfere with internal witness support to have that public interest disclosure status and associated protections revoked so that the officer could be charged and disciplined.

“That officer sustained a psychological injury as a result of the (alleged actions of) the ESC investigator.”

Now a senior paralegal, Ms Rasmussen had advocated for the two officers involved with the Gold Coast station as part of a former job.

“Rather than support the officers who reported the (alleged) conduct of the ESC investigator and who then sustained injuries, the QPS appears to have failed to take appropriate action,” she said.

“Instead, they have also fought against the approval of one of the officer’s worker’s compensation claims right up to the QIRC.”

According to the QPS web site, the purpose of the ESC is to promote ethical behaviour, discipline and professional practice in the QPS through deterrence, education and system improvements.

Some of the roles that fall under the ESC umbrella include investigating allegations of corruption, misconduct and serious breaches of discipline, administering the QPS discipline system, encouraging reporting by internal sources of suspect behaviour, ensuring procedural fairness and maintaining the confidence of all QPS members in respect to the proper and efficient management of the QPS discipline system.