CMC ‘TINKERING’ WITH POLICE COMPLAINTS PROCESS

The CMC review of police discipline and conduct is merely tinkering at the edge of the problems with Queensland’s police complaints process, the Queensland Council for Civil Liberties said today.

QCCL Vice President Terry O’Gorman said the Palm Island/Doomadgee/Hurley fiasco—which resulted in a 6 year delay in finalising a simple complaint against police—showed that the Queensland police complaints system was broken and it needed root and branch reform.

“The Civil Liberties Council renews its call for an eminent interstate lawyer to be appointed to review the whole police complaints process in Queensland, including the CMC’s oversight role,” Mr O’Gorman said.

“It is over 20 years since an independent review of the police complaints process was undertaken in Queensland. Such a review is well overdue.”

“In the years that have elapsed since the Beattie Labor Government handed back the investigation of complaints against the police to the Queensland Police Service, the complaints process has gradually lost credibility, despite the oversight role played by the CMC. The police complaints model in Queensland is almost completely broke and lacking in credibility,” the QCCL vice president said.

“Nowhere in today’s CMC Report is there any examination by the CMC of its own many failures in carrying out its oversight role, let alone any examination of its abysmal failure in the Palm Island/Doomadgee/Hurley matter,” Mr O’Gorman said.

Mr O’Gorman also expressed concern about the employee rights of Queensland police officers if the new ‘Commissioner’s loss of confidence’ (CLOC) regime was introduced in Queensland.

“While we have been critical of the failure of the police complaints model in Queensland, any new model must protect police officer’s employment procedural fairness rights. We have concerns that the CLOC model takes away the employment rights of police officers which are enjoyed by all other public servants in this State,” Mr O’Gorman said.