More than $200M cash injection needed to clean up cops says union boss

The state’s police union has revealed an enormous cash injection needed to repair the service. Read what it says must happen

The fix to “appalling” conditions within the state’s police service will costs $200m with extra funding needed immediately, the Queensland Police Union says.

President Shane Prior made the startling claim as a leaked email shows the Queensland Police Service (QPS) is unable to answer calls to triple-0 due to a lack of staff - despite running on 800 hours of overtime per week.

“The alarming 000 situation further highlights the urgent need for immediate increases in resourcing,” Mr Prior said.

“Policing as a profession has been at a crossroads for some time because for the last 20 years we haven’t invested appropriately.”

QLD Premier David Crisafulli meeting with QLD Police Union President Shane Prior on Tuesday.

On Tuesday, Mr Prior met newly-elected Premier David Crisafulli where it’s understood the government reaffirmed its commitment to deliver an extra 1600 police over the next four years.

“The most courageous thing I saw out of that election was David Crisafulli staking his premiership on driving down crime,” Mr Prior said.

“If he wants to do that, he needs to invest significantly and immediately in policing.

“The issues facing Qld Police are plain to see – shortage of staff, massive domestic violence workload, appalling working conditions of some of our stations,

“We need to invest significantly more than $200 million if we’re going to do something about it.”

The QPS has had its lowest growth in officers on the frontline in two decades. Increasing from 11,506 officers in March 2015 to 12,341 in July this year, a rise of 835 police in nine years. The LNP under Premier Campbell Newman added an extra 919 in four years.

The QPS is also desperately trying to cut costs as it faces a $206m budget black hole four months into the new financial year.

LNP's Jarrod Bleijie and David Crisafulli meeting with Commissioner of the Queensland Police Service Steve Gollschewski.

Premier David Crisafulli has promised the service’s poor finances won’t impact officers.

“There cannot be reductions to the frontline because of mistakes last term,” he said.

“They (officers) shouldn’t be penalised because of a bad deal signed up to.”

The Premier committed to increasing mental health support for police and backing the thin blue line with tougher laws.

“One of the things I’m tasking the Police Minister, once appointed, with is to spend a lot of time doing exactly this, going to police stations across the state and just saying to frontline staff to please hang in there,” he said.

A new Police Minister will be sworn in on Friday.

Originally published as More than $200M cash injection needed to clean up cops says union boss