Since graduating from the police academy in the 1990s, Doug McDonald has seen his fair share of dangerous situations.
The Queensland police officer said he had been called to incidents where shots were fired, almost killing his colleagues.
"My colleague was involved in a shootout with an armed offender that was attempting an armed robbery," Superintendent McDonald said.
"A bullet round hit him on a diver's watch that he was wearing, which ultimately … saved his life."
Superintendent McDonald has served as an intelligence officer with the Queensland Police Service, was involved in counter-terrorism operations during the 2018 Commonwealth Games, and helped organise the public memorials for constables Matthew Arnold and Rachel Crow.
The pair were killed in an ambush by extremists at a rural property at Wieambilla in December.
Superintendent McDonald said the dangerous nature of policing had been underscored by their deaths and that of Senior Constable Brett Forte who was shot and killed in an ambush in the Lockyer Valley in 2017.
"Officers go to work every day, not knowing what dangers they might face on the job," he said.
Three police officers in southern Queensland have been killed on duty in the past six years, but Superintendent McDonald said there had been no notable increase in officers being targeted.
More data needed
Griffith University criminology researcher Associate Professor Justin Ready said the data was inconclusive on whether there had been an increase in the number of assaults against police.
"We have some states that show reductions in recent years in assaults and aggression towards police officers, places like WA and Victoria," Dr Ready said.
"And then we have some places that have shown some increases."
He said there was also a lack of data to suggest there had been an increase in the number of deadly ambushes targeting police.
"One large scale study shows there's been a global reduction in ambush incidents from 1970 but then a slight spike over the last five years," he said.
"But it's not large enough to show a kind of a major increase."
Despite increased concerns about religious extremists and conspiracy theorists, Dr Ready said organised crime and bladed weapons still rated as the highest threat towards police officers.
"We need to look at the growth of organised crime gangs, especially transnational organised crime groups that are getting a foothold in Australia," Dr Ready said.
"There also seems to be growing number of bladed weapon weapons being passed around or used in communities. I think that's a concern."
Dr Ready said the growing use of the drug fentanyl and animal tranquillisers could be a growing threat as users under the influence were more difficult to manage.
"If that emerges as a pattern, which it is in the US, we need to be concerned about that because that would present a risk to officers as well," he said.
Better protection
Dr Ready believed the increased use of body-worn cameras and tasers would help better protect police officers, as well as better intelligence sharing between police forces.
"I think sharing of information across jurisdictions is really helpful because even though the police might stay within certain jurisdictional boundaries, offenders certainly are not," he said.
For Superintendent McDonald, there has been massive change since when police started with "a baton, handcuffs, and a firearm".
He said better technology, such as QLiTE devices which allows police officers to share information quickly, would also provide improved protection to police.
"There's no doubt there are dangers associated with policing," Superintendent McDonald said.
"But for me, I would say that there is not a single day of my 32 years in the police that I've regretted it."
