Police say technology can be used to put a stop to frontline exodus

Police officers who quit the service because of post traumatic stress disorder say there’s one area the service needs to explore to help ease the pressure and stop the exodus.

More than 700 Queensland Police officers left the service last financial year. File picture

Police officers who quit the service because of post traumatic stress disorder and a lack of frontline support say the organisation needs to overhaul technology to prevent mass exodus.

Former officer Dan Owttrim – who left the service in 2021 due to PTSD – said he felt mental health wasn’t supported enough, as psychologists across the country record a rise in police being treated for depression, anxiety and moral injury.

It comes after The Courier-Mail last week revealed 709 sworn police left the service in the last financial year, the worst exodus in five years.

The data also showed more than 2000 officers took long-term stress or sick leave in the past financial year, with police in Brisbane and South Eastern Regions accessing the most psychological leave.

Mr Owttrim said he was having nightmares every night because of injuries suffered on the job.

“The mental health side of things is massive, you’ve got to be able to support your officers who are having a hard time,” he said. “No matter what flaws your department has, we’ve still got to go out there and do the jobs, and we’re not getting the help in our physiological responses to those jobs.”

Former officer Craig Doran left the service after being frustrated with a lack of frontline work and too much paperwork.

Former officer Craig Doran said technology has a role to play in easing the strain on frontline officers. Picture: Tara Croser.

He created AI service Comtrac to streamline paperwork, which he says is the only way forward for the organisation.

“The whole concept is that you free up police from that, then you’re getting them back on the road,” he said.

“If you can increase the efficiency of what they do by 40 per cent that’s the equivalent of putting 4000 police back on the road.

“No recruitment campaign is going to achieve that in any shape or form. They’re barely just keeping up with the attrition rates as it is.

“I think it’s only a matter of time where a critical incident is going to occur, because they didn’t have frontline capacity to respond to it.”

Australian Association of Psychologists vice president Katrina Norris said not only were psychologists seeing more cases of depression and anxiety among police officers, they were also seeing people experiencing moral injury.

“Usually it’s to do with situations that are in conflict with the individual’s moral code. So essentially, things like where they’ve tried to do the right thing, but they’ve ended up injured from it, or where they’ve seen a particularly difficult event, and then the outcomes of that event are unjust,” she said.

“We see that a lot with policing at the moment … they do their job where they try to put people behind bars, and then the system lets them back out … essentially, they lose faith in the system.”

A QPS spokesman said the service was committed to community safety and workforce support.

“The QPS Annual Report highlighted that throughout 2024-25, the QPS continued to deliver frontline and specialist policing services … QPS crime data reflected a positive impact of the Service’s operational approach, with an overall reduction in crime of 2 per cent compared to the previous year,” the spokesman said. “These outcomes reflect the commitment and dedication of QPS officers and staff.”

They said key reforms from the 100-Day Review of the QPS, which began in March, included frontline support with locally led wellbeing networks, improved employee housing, demand-based rostering, and targeted workforce supplementation models.

They also said the service was exploring opportunities to use AI and had run a three-month trial of automated reports from audio captured by police body worn cameras.

Originally published as Police say technology can be used to put a stop to frontline exodus