Qld police unlawfully gave DV victims’ addresses to alleged offenders

A police computer system has automatically exposed domestic violence victims to further attacks by revealing their home addresses to alleged offenders for years.

A police data leak has put domestic violence victims at risk. (File picture)

Queensland police repeatedly and unlawfully disclosed the home addresses of domestic and family violence victims to their alleged offenders through court documents, a major privacy review has found.

It follow revelations aired at parliament estimate hearings in July 2024 that the Queensland Police Service’s case management system, QPRIME, was automatically inserting victim address details into court forms.

Officers were expected to manually remove the information — a safeguard found to have repeatedly failed.

QPS identified 368 forms that contained victim, respondent or offence location addresses and eight documents that would automatically disclose those details without manual intervention.

The Queensland Office of the Information Commissioner was in December 2024 was tasked with reviewing the QPS data handling system.

It examined seven cases between 2020 and 2023 and found offenders were able to locate victims and commit further acts of violence, placing lives at serious risk.

This was largely due to QPRIME’s automatic publication of offence locations into court documents, as police routinely listed victims’ full residential addresses as the “location of offence” — even for crimes involving phone calls, online threats or harassment where a precise address was unnecessary.

The review also found QPS had been aware of risks linked to QPRIME’s auto-population function as early as 2017 but failed to implement effective system-wide fixes for years.

QPS was found to have breached three core Information Privacy Principles -failing to properly secure personal information, using more personal information than necessary, and unlawfully disclosing personal information without valid law-enforcement justification. Although the findings met the threshold for a formal compliance notice, the Information Commissioner opted against issuing one due to recent corrective actions.

Since August 2024, QPS has introduced partial redaction controls for key court documents, added warnings to release forms, strengthened operational procedures, amended Bench Charge Sheet wording, and tightened internal complaint handling.

QPS on Wednesday issues a statement in response to the review’s findings, acknowledging the “importance of the matters raised”.

“The Service is committed to ongoing meaningful evolution and improvement of its systems and processes,” a QPS spokesman said.

“As some of the (19) recommendations are technical in nature, the QPS will take time to consider the report and its recommendations in closer detail, to determine a suitable action plan moving forward.”

Complaints regarding police conduct can be made by reporting to a police station, contacting Policelink (131 444), or by online submission through the QPS website.

Originally published as Qld police unlawfully gave DV victims’ addresses to alleged offenders