Officers ‘exhausted’, facing large demands in DV jobs, crime

Commissioner Katarina Carroll says police already overworked during two years of Covid continue to face an uphill battle of rising crime, a concerning road toll and increases in domestic violence.

Commissioner Katarina Carroll says police are exhausted, as they battle exponential increases in domestic violence, a rising road toll and crime.

The state’s top police officer said her crews had been so overworked during two years of Covid policing and were now taking leave as Queensland moves out of the pandemic stage.

Ms Carroll said she was aiming to have at least a five per cent decrease in crime after a year-on-year crime rate increase in personal crime such sexual assaults, assaults and robberies.

“It was an incredibly difficult two years and it was exhausting,” Ms Carroll told The Courier-Mail.

“And I take my hat off to the police because they did an absolutely tremendous job.

“Police played such an important role … on the borders, in the hotels, meeting people at the airport, and over an extended period of time.

“And there were some days that we had up to the most intense periods, we had, you know, up to 1200 staff on that.”

The biggest challenge for the service was dealing with the demand from the public.

Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll says crews have been overworked over the past two years. Picture: Matthew Poon

Ms Carroll told The Courier-Mail police went to 380 DV occurrences a day, or almost 140,000 occurrences in 2021-22, compared to 90,000 in 2017-18.
She said she was open to detectives working in investigative DV units if it was a recommendation from the Commission of Inquiry into police responses to DV.

Police had been working on DV reforms but they were delayed during Covid, she said.

With criticisms of the service heard in the inquiry Ms Carroll said there were some officers who didn’t align with QPS values which was concerning but “predominantly our people come to work to help the community”.

“If the commission of inquiry found that (having dedicated detectives tasked to a DV unit) is quite effective, and based on good evidence in other places, I would support that,” Ms Carroll, who was a detective for 15 years, said.

“So I would be very supportive of having, you know, better skills to investigate better, particularly around coercive control, which will involve a lot of investigation over a period of time.

“We’re looking forward to working with the commission of inquiry, and ultimately, it’s everyone’s aim in this to make sure that we have a better system,” she said.

Ms Carroll said there had been a 7 per cent increase in crime in Queensland in 2021-22 compared to the previous 12 months.

But she said it was actually a 4 per cent decrease when compared to pre-Covid policing in 2018-19.

“In the Covid period we were locked down for an extended period of time, so you didn’t have people moving around,” she said.

“There was a massive decreases in assaults in break and enters because people were at home. “Once people start moving again, obviously, you know, things start going back to the way they that they were but particularly for us though, we have changed the way that we report things.”

A review of the organisation had found demand for police had increased by more than 40 per cent in five years, with triple-0 calls by 70 per cent.

Police were changing the way they responded to issues and the controversial Service Delivery Redesign Program was aiming to reduce duplication, implement demand rostering and have quicker crew responses.

Ms Carroll said the road toll was also of concern. During the pandemic people aged in their 40s and 50s bought motorcycles and deaths relating to the vehicles were over-represented, she said.

Figures show a 24 per cent increase in motorcycle deaths, when considering the variation in 2022 compared to the 2017-2021 average. The road toll was last week 186 or 10 higher than at the same time last year.

Ms Carroll said youth justice issues remained a challenge for police, with youths filming themselves in stolen vehicles.

The issue was being discussed by the Australia New Zealand Policing Advisory Agency this year to consider national strategies to prevent and disrupt the issue, she said.

Originally published as Officers ‘exhausted’, facing large demands in DV jobs, crime