QLD Police Service & the Community Loses Confidence in Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll, as the QPS demands her resignation

Queensland Police Service and the community loses confidence in Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll, as the QPS demands her resignation.

Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll has been in Queensland’s top Police job for over three years and has admitted that she was aware of the problems in the Qld Police Service. She admitted that she did nothing until forced to act by a damning report.

Commissioner Carroll has shifted from one high paying Government job to the next, but continues to not address the issues overshadowing the already struggling Qld Police Service. A clear example of Commissioner Carroll’s failures is the fact that it took a Commission inquiry before she decided to act, she has no answers other than to attack our members in the police service. She is accountable for this mess and she is clearly not the right person to clean it up.

Commissioner Carroll continues to let down the Qld Police Service, after three years she has not fixed the QPS culture nor has she improved community safety, especially in relation to domestic and family violence which continues to worsen by the day.

Commissioner Carroll’s tough talk does not explain why she failed to act for so long. She hid this festering problem from us until it was too big to hide, what else is hidden below the surface?.

A petition with more than 1,000 signatures calling for her resignation for failing to address a culture of sexist, misogynist and racist conduct within the Service is currently before the Queensland Parliament. Will the Qld Parliament take action? or will they stand behind their belligerent and complicit Commissioner?

Commissioner, it is clear that the community and the Qld Police Service have lost confidence in you. Saying you will do something now, when you knew and did nothing for years is too little, too late. The Sworn Officers' Professional Association of Australia’s question to you is why did you not act sooner?

The Sworn Officers' Professional Association of Australia is a group of police officers wanting an independent alternate voice to the Government aligned QPA. The SOPAA wanted to join the strength of almost 9,000 workers under the Red Union banner with the likes of the Nurses' Professional Association and Queensland, Teachers' Professional Association of Queensland and the Professional Drivers' Association of Australia.

Many Qld Police Officers are concerned that the Police Commissioners lack of care for the Service, for the community and for public sector workers is common amongst senior management in the Queensland government. These problems stretch across the whole of the public service sector of over 300,000 workers.

Daily we hear more stories about mismanagement by Queensland Health bureaucrats who wait until somebody gets hurt before acting. For example, Queensland Health and the QPS should have investigated the violent assault of Mr Robert Tremble, a patient in Caboolture Hospital, back in January 2021, but they dropped the case with no explanation, why? Mr Tremble will be in pain for the rest of his life and senior management do not care.

Mackay, Townsville, Caboolture Hospitals are not safe places. It is not if, but when will the next Queenslander be harmed?

Police, Public Sector Employees and Queenslanders have lost faith in the management of the Police Service and the Queensland Public Sector as it reels from disaster to disaster. Commissioner Carroll will hide the QPS cultural problems and concerns behind layers of red tape rather than by holding management to account and addressing the core issues that Police are really concerned about.

We call on Commissioner Katrina Carroll to resign. It is time for a better way.

Contact: Brendon Cook at hotline@sopaa.asn.au
National Secretary of the Sworn Officers Professional Association of Australia (SOPAA).