Police Union call for Royal Commission

I refer to the call by Mr Ian Leavers, President of the Queensland Police Union, for a Royal Commission into Police shootings and in that regard I enclose[i] an extract from the Sunday Mail of 11 August 2024.

The principal points made by Mr Leavers in the enclosed article is as follows:-

·         That there should be a Royal Commission with a national dimension which should examine mental health issues arising from Police shootings;

·         That the current rate of Police shootings in Queensland has damaged a generation of Police; and

·         That people needing mental health treatment should receive treatment promptly.

I enclose[ii] a Media Release dated 11 August 2024 distributed by the Queensland Council for Civil Liberties.

By way of clarification, in the sixth paragraph of that Media Release, the point was intended to be made that there has been no systemic review of the underlying causes of Police shootings since the Queensland Coroner’s systemic review in 2015 of a small number of Police shootings. 

It is recognised that the Queensland Coroner is mandated to examine fatal Police shootings.  However, each such Inquest is a ‘one off’ unless there is a repeat of the type of systemic review undertaken in 2015 by the Queensland Coroner and, as indicated, that type of systemic review is now almost 10 years old.   

It is this Council’s position that there is a problem in Queensland in relation to Police shootings as reflected by the following facts:-

·         There have been 23 Police shootings in Queensland from 2021-2024; and

·         An ABC 7.30 Report by Stephanie Zillman on 4 August 2023 asserted that data shows that Queensland    Police shot more people in 2022 than Police in the rest of Australia combined.

In the Courier Mail of 6 August 2024 under the heading “More people with weapons wanting to confront Police: Steve Gollschewski voices fears after shooting” it is reported that Queensland’s Police Commissioner indicated that “we are looking very closely to see what the trends are” when asked why Queensland had the highest number of Police shootings than other States or Territories.  There has been no publicised Report by the Police Commissioner as to “what the trends are”. 

We contend that there should be a Public Inquiry as to the ‘trends’ referred to by Mr Gollschewski with a view to addressing systemic issues that have produced the very high rate of both fatal and non‑fatal Police shootings in Queensland.

The Inquiry need not be of a Royal Commission status but should be a Public Inquiry involving policing experts (not restricted to Police Officers) from around Australia and the UK.

The UK has a policing environment similar to Australia and has recognised expertise in Police shootings and related matters.

It is this Council’s submission that an Inquiry into mental health funding shortfalls that extends beyond Queensland is unjustified as there is an abundance of evidence that funding of mental health facilities around the country particularly for emergency type situations is at crisis point with both a shortage of Psychiatrists in public hospitals and a shortage of public hospital beds.  No more Inquiries (whether Queensland or nationally focussed) are needed to address the well documented problem with significantly subpar mental health funding throughout Australia.

We submit that the Inquiry we are calling for should identify all Police shootings since the last review carried out by the Queensland Coroner in 2015 with a view to identifying any common or systemic issues that can be addressed in order to bring the rate of Police shootings down to the level of other States and Territories in Australia.

Enclosed:

[i] 11/08/2024 - Sunday Mail news article “Pull the trigger on a Royal Commission”

                      - Police Shootings Diagram 2022-2024

[ii] 11/08/2024 - QCCL Media Release