Senior Queensland cops desperate emails reveal crime crisis, lack of police resources

Leaked emails from a Gold Coast cop have laid bare a chronic shortage of experienced police amid a crime crisis, the officer revealing dozens of calls per shift that police can’t attend.

Leaked police emails give alarming insight into the true state of Queensland’s frontline with no one available to respond to dozens of calls for help and supervisors so inundated they fear making a serious mistake.

Over several emails to superiors in the first half of 2023, a senior Gold Coast officer lays bare how offenders are using the M1 as their own private raceway, homeowners are becoming vigilantes and in one night 90 of 122 call-outs could not be serviced.

In his emails to police bosses, respected Glitter Strip district duty officer Senior-Sergeant Arron Ottaway reveals his frustrations over a lack of manpower, including one incident where an off-duty top cop could not get police help as he fought off a violent and drug-addled intruder in his own yard.

In one email, Sen-Sgt Ottaway told a superior how “frustrated” residents opted to chase teen criminals themselves and smash the window of their stolen car rather than call police.

He even admits that the lack of support and stress had driven him to drink.

In another email in late April, Sen-Sgt Ottaway told a superior of recent shifts where police had to deal with up to 122 jobs at a time, with as many as 90 “unresourced”.

“The QPS is asking too much of me – I cannot continue to work by myself as a DDO on the Gold Coast at peak times (or I will) make a mistake that will have a high consequence,” he wrote.

“We, as DDOs, are continually getting asked to overview more, make more decisions, run multiple high-risk jobs, consider high-risk DV offenders, liaise with QAS over mental health, approve transports … you get it, the list goes on.”

In one email, sent in late January, he wrote that he was the only District Duty Officer (DDO) on duty and “there are so many jobs and competing interests that I’m losing my mind”.

Senior Sergeant Arron Ottaway. Picture: Glenn Hampson

“Tonight has been relentless, just like last night, ” he wrote.

“Last night, I didn’t stand up for four-and-a-half hours due to the workload. I eat at the computer.

“Last night, on the way home, I stopped at a bottle shop drive thru, bought a six-pack and drank all of them once I got home, just to try and calm myself down.

“I once dealt with a mental health consumer who said that he drinks for the “comfortable numbness” – I think I understand what he is speaking about.”

In the email, Sen-Sgt Ottaway told how three stolen cars were rolling through the Gold Coast, “one at high speed treating the highway like a racetrack”.

“So bad was the driving that members of the public were calling Triple 0,” he wrote.

“Yet conversely, so frustrated are the members of the public, that instead of calling police when the crooks were actually breaking into the house, the street got together, chased the baddies and smashed the front windscreen of the stolen car they were in.”

In another case, Sen-Sgt Ottaway said, an off-duty senior commissioned officer rang for help “because a UID (under the influence of drugs), violent, shirtless offender was in his yard and he was rolling around on the ground fighting with him”.

“It gets worse,” he wrote.

“The off-duty officer and his wife had called a number of times. You guessed it – no cops, no on-road DDO, no RDO (regional duty officer) to go.”

Sen-Sgt Ottaway said he had to decide “on countless occasions” whether to allow police crews to transport a mental health patient to hospital because an ambulance did not turn up or was unavailable.

“I’m asked to decide, with zero medical training and virtually no information, of whether I should allow our people to do these transports,” he wrote.

“I guess I’ll be the one in trouble for that as well when the patient dies in police custody.”

Police involved in a low speed pursuit on the Gold Coast earlier this year.

Sen-Sgt Ottaway also told how he was trying to deal with 23 “unresourced” domestic violence cases at one time and how there were “no police” to respond to an urgent request for help from paramedics.

He said the South Eastern Police District was “more interested in its budget” than providing urgently needed manpower and “our people are struggling”.

“There cannot be just one DDO on,” he wrote.

“DDOs are losing their sh-t because every single shift is like running a marathon. And I can’t keep up any longer.”

The seasoned cop has been relegated to desk duties amid an internal investigation into the pursuit of two teenagers in an allegedly stolen car.

Footage of the low-speed chase shows cops attempting the controversial precision immobilisation technique, or “PIT manoeuvre”, where pursuing police force a vehicle to turn sideways and the vehicle to lose control.

An official police report obtained by The Courier-Mail states that the “tactic of boxing in” was approved by the police communications controller to stop the vehicle which was travelling on its rims at an estimated 10 km/h.

But some police claimed Sen-Sgt Ottaway had been “targeted” over the “justified” pursuit because of his complaints about a lack of officers on the Coast.

“Our boss has been ‘benched’ because he was trying to catch crooks,” a source said.

“We have never been taught or trained on how to box in or PIT a car. The offenders were never going to stop.”

South Eastern police region Assistant Commissioner Brian Swan said the Gold Coast was a “really challenging” policing environment and he had ordered a comprehensive review into officer safety and well-being, including rostering and support programs.

“The thing that worries me the most is the well-being of our people - that we have healthy and safe workplaces and healthy and safe people, not just physically but psychologically safe as well,” he said.

“We’re in the process of changing the way we do things, but it’s going to take time.”

Mr Swan said staffing levels were continually monitored and millions of dollars was spent on overtime, with police able to call in extra officers in busy periods.

“We could have a police officer on every corner in every suburb and some shifts, that won’t seem like enough,” he said.

“The complexity of what our teams are doing every day is just immense.

“I’ve made it very clear that budgets are not to get in the way of officer and community safety.

“My priority is the safety of the community and the safety of my workforce and that’s the bottom line.”

Mr Swan said there was no link between Sen-Sgt Ottaway being stood down and the concerns he had raised over police numbers.

Police at the scene of a car chase that ended in the heart of Surfers Paradise, with drugs and cash allegedly seized. File picture: Richard Gosling

Emails written by Sen-Sgt Ottaway to his superiors in the months before the pursuit reveal his stress and frustration at a lack of back-up.

After Sen-Sgt Ottaway first spoke out, Gold Coast chief superintendent Craig Hanlon emailed DDOs to tell them he appreciated that “we are all under increasing pressure to complete our jobs with demand increasing and associated staffing issues”.

“However, I and the District Management team sleep well at night knowing you are reviewing calls for service and demand and managing resources throughout the District under our Priority Policing Policy,” he wrote.

Last month, an inspector emailed Sen-Sgt Ottaway to tell him his concerns had been “taken seriously” and Coast police bosses had decided to launch a review into issues including DDO rosters, equipment and health and safety.

The Queensland Police Union said it was supporting Sen-Sgt Ottaway.

Chief Superintendent Craig Hanlon. File picture.