‘These lickers will never get a job’: Mortified Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll’s promise to take action
An officer-in-charge of a police unit sent porn to colleagues and referred to two female prospective employees by saying: “These lickers will never get a job in this office”. Now the state’s top cop has pledged action.
Police & Courts
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Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll has ordered a review of cases where male officers escaped punishment for predatory behaviour against female colleagues and has pledged to restore the confidence of people coming forward to make complaints.
Her announcement followed weeks of evidence in the Commission of Inquiry into Queensland Police Service Responses to Domestic Violence where police were accused of widespread sexism, racism and misogyny.
Ms Carroll’s leadership of the police service was called into question after she was grilled for days in the inquiry about specific cases where senior officers had sexually assaulted colleagues, harassed or intimidated them over long periods – and on many occasions, received little to no punishment.
She has admitted the “local managerial resolution” process – which involves a chat with a more senior officer – was being misused to “punish” serial and serious offenders.
“The disgraceful examples we have heard of in recent weeks cannot and will not continue,” Ms Carroll said.
“I am making it very clear to our workplace, this behaviour will not be tolerated and anyone who perpetrates it has no place in our workforce.
“I have apologised to the members of our organisation who have been impacted by this behaviour, but again today I say, I am truly sorry.
“As an organisation, we have failed victims, and we need to do better.
“I apologise to all victims and I want you to know now, we are taking action.”
The inquiry has heard specific examples of young women who came forward after being subjected to bullying, sexism and harassment and had to leave their roles after making a complaint.
The perpetrator in one of these cases was promoted following the investigation but for several of the women, their careers went backwards.
Some said they felt “let down” by the Commissioner and had had to leave their detective roles as a result of making a complaint.
Ms Carroll said while she could not talk about specific cases before the inquiry, she would personally look at what can be done to help those women’s careers get back on track.
“I will look at … any instances where I am not satisfied with the outcome to see what happened to women in these areas,” she said.
“If that happened to me, I would be absolutely mortified.
“I was a detective for 18 years, that’s what I was passionate about – and no one should impact your life and your career like that because it’s so easy then to lose your passion for the job and who you are.
“And that should never happen.”
She said she was seeking legal advice and reviewing matters where perpetrators escaped proper discipline after bullying or sexually harassing women.
One of these cases involved an unnamed unit within the QPS where widespread bullying occurred for more than a decade, perpetrated by six offices against 15 people.
The officer-in-charge of the unit was found to have engaged in behaviours such as making threats, yelling, swearing, openly criticising staff and displaying inappropriate material in the office.
He sent pornographic material to colleagues, displayed a picture of a woman in swimwear on the office fridge with the words “tap and go”, referred to an officer as “towel head” and “Osama” and referred to two female prospective employees by saying: “These lickers will never get a job in this office”.
He was given local managerial guidance and promoted to a larger station.
Another man was the subject of 80 substantiated complaints. He medically retired following the investigation.
“There is frustration and not being able to move people from the organisation, particularly some of the people we have been discussing,” Ms Carroll said.
“As a result, I have asked for a number of matters where I am not satisfied of the outcomes to be reviewed again.
“We will be doing everything we can through the appropriate legislation to ensure that these people are no longer part of the QPS.
“If there are cases where I can show cause against members who should not be in the organisation, I will take that action.”
She said she had also bolstered the Ethical Standards Command to ensure that cases where officers who were given local managerial resolution were given proper oversight.
“So what I have done is, I have put additional resources into Ethical Standards under a very senior officer, a superintendent, to have top oversight of all of those matters,” Ms Carroll said.
“And to elevate the importance of the issues we are talking about and to ensure that LMR is applied appropriately when it is applied.”
But Ms Carroll acknowledged it would take time for her troops to regain confidence in the disciplinary process, to know that “the victims will be looked after and that the matter will be looked into”.
“This will also take time because you have to build confidence back into the system,” she said.
“You have to build confidence of those victims to come forward.
“And there has to be good evidence that we are taking appropriate action against the right people.”
Asked whether she had “let women down”, Ms Carroll said Covid had hampered her ability to address issues within the service.
“I feel that reform has been very slow,” she said.
“And now the opportunity is just to get on with this and to make a clear statement that we just need to take this forward.”
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