Major review of Queensland watch houses sees sweeping recommendations to fix crisis

The long-awaited Queensland Police Service Watch-house Review has revealed $56m in cop overtime to become fill-in guards and chauffeurs, amid rising injuries in staff.

Police are being used to babysit prisoners in watch houses.

Queensland Police are spending more than $150,000 a day to be chauffeurs and guards for watch-house prisoners, a damning new report on the state’s watch-house crisis has uncovered.

The long-awaited Queensland Police Service Watch-house Review has also revealed one in seven watch-house staff are being injured by inmates, with work compensation claims soaring to more than $1 million last year.

The 35-page report – ordered by Commissioner Steve Gollschewski last year – uncovers systemic issues within the state’s 63 watch houses, labelled by Police Minister Dan Purdie as “more dangerous than the streets”.

Thirty-four sweeping recommendations have been made in the report by Deputy Commissioner Cameron Harsley, but Queensland Police Union president Shane Prior said the government’s $16 million funding commitment only scratched the surface.

“This problem we see did not happen overnight. These watch houses are a ticking time bomb,” Mr Prior said.

“Essentially the QPS has become the prisoner daycare for Queensland Corrective Services and the practice needs to stop now.

“The $16 million committed by the government is a step in the right direction, but no where near enough to solve this issue.”

According to the review, more than 297,000 hours of frontline police shifts were spent transporting, guarding or escorting prisoners across the state, rather than being on the road fighting crime.

This severe drain on the organisation cost $56.5 million in overtime wages alone – the equivalent of every officer at Boondall, Inala and Stafford stations working full-time.

Mr Harsley said this wasn’t acceptable.

“The prisoner transport issue is really the drain that is taking police off the front line to do transportation. And we don’t want to take police off the front line. We want them in our communities, keeping our community safe,” Mr Harsley said.

The report also revealed one in every 20 watch-house staff had a physiological injury, and one in seven had been physically injured at work in the 17 busiest watch houses in the state.

Since 2019, more than $5 million in WorkCover claims have been made, with some watch-house staff having 41 days of sick leave a year, attributed to watch house conditions.

Mr Purdie said Queensland’s watch houses were dangerous.

“What this report shows is that it is a more dangerous place to work than on the street, with one in seven staff and police who work in watch houses being the victim of assault, which is greater than that on the front line,” Mr Purdie said.

“I can confirm to you and to all Queenslanders, and we will continue to work with our police and to give them the support they need to develop a business case with other agencies, and then we’ll implement that to fix the problem.”

The report also highlighted how off-duty police were having to clean watch-house cells, where there is often urine on walls, blood, bodily fluids and faeces.

Some of the 34 recommendations included developing a business case for capital works to fix watch houses, consider a maximum stay length, and create a better model for transporting prisoners.

It also highlighted the poor condition of watch houses, which included broken CCTV cameras, and some facilities broken beyond repair.

The government has allocated $16 million for immediate upgrades to facilities, but the total cost to implement all recommendations is expected to be much higher.

Originally published as Major review of Queensland watch houses sees sweeping recommendations to fix crisis