The Queensland Police Service continues to employ frontline officers whose actions resulted in payouts worth millions of dollars to victims of bullying and harassment, Guardian Australia has learned.
The commission of inquiry into Queensland police responses to domestic violence has revealed dozens of instances where officers were found to have engaged in racism, sexism, misogyny and bullying. In many of these cases, officers were repeat offenders and not subject to disciplinary action.
On Friday, the QPS committed to re-examining an unknown number of these cases.
Employment law experts say the weak police discipline system and the ongoing employment of problematic officers have created “clear breaches of duty” under workplace health and safety laws, which require organisations to provide a safe environment for employees.
Guardian Australia is aware of several recent cases where former officers made claims against the QPS for damages of more than $1m each, related to the actions of colleagues. Some are known repeat offenders, and remain on the job.
In one recent case, a female senior constable alleged she had to run from a patrol car, due to the aggressive behaviour of a male colleague. She sued for $1.1m and it is understood the case has settled out of court.
Guardian Australia has confirmed the male officer was subject to prior complaint. He remains employed by the QPS in a frontline role.
Susan Moriarty, a Brisbane lawyer specialising in workplace discrimination, said the failure to protect officers by removing problematic colleagues meant the QPS had “an extremely enhanced risk profile” for workplace health and safety complaints.
“They have duties and obligations under the [law], and these instances are clear breaches of the duty they owned to eliminate all possible risks,” Moriarty said.
She said there was a “yawning disparity” between police discipline and processes in other public sector departments.
A number of cases involving systemic bullying, harassment and misogyny were revealed at the inquiry to have been dealt with by “local management resolution” – a remedial discussion with a superior.
“No matter how many times individual officers are named as stressors in these events they continue to maintain their careers,” Moriarty said.
Commissioner Katarina Carroll said on Friday she believed “in the majority of cases” the QPS provided a safe workplace.
“What’s been pointed out is that unfortunately in some places, that [safe workplace] has not been the case.
“If it’s a failing under law it certainly has not been an intentional one. I think there’s a systems and processes issue here that I only became aware of and I intend to rectify that.”
Longstanding concerns about policing of police
Terry O’Gorman, a decades-long civil liberties advocate and barrister in Queensland, said the inquiry has not had enough time to properly scrutinise police discipline.
“The evidence that has emerged shows that the long-discredited ‘managerial guidance’ complaints procedure is just a joke. It’s been a joke for ages and it remains a joke,” O’Gorman said.
“Police regard it as being hit by a piece of wet lettuce.”
The Crime and Corruption Commission is supposed to have oversight of the police internal discipline system, but senior police have told the Guardian that advice from the corruption watchdog is usually marked “no outcome required” – meaning internal police investigators do not have to report back.
Guardian Australia is also aware of cases where police Ethical Standards Command recommendations for disciplinary action were overturned by district-based police officers, who instead dealt with officers via “local management resolution”.
O’Gorman said the Queensland Civil Liberties Council had longstanding concerns about the way the CCC spent too little of its resources looking at police misconduct.
“It is time for the whole adequacy of the police complaints system to be fundamentally revisited.”
One of the recommendations of the Queensland Women’s Safety and Justice Taskforce, which also called for the inquiry, was for the state to consider establishing a standalone law enforcement conduct commission, similar to the model in NSW.
Bad eggs and ‘fresh meat’
This week, the Queensland premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, indicated vague support for the notion of a “no confidence” power that would give the police commissioner the ability to do what the discipline system struggles with: sack problematic cops.
Carroll has said she wants disciplinary systems to allow “tough and decisive” action, and that she does not want problematic officers in the organisation. However, the influential Queensland Police Union opposes the commissioner having a no-confidence power.
Further media reports this week alleging that female recruits were told at the police academy they would be “fresh meat” for male officers were not surprising, many police said.
The reports reinforced concerns these are cultural problems throughout the entire organisation, and not just the actions of bad egg officers, as has been claimed by the police hierarchy and the union.
“It has the potential to reinforce dysfunctional organisational norms of the kind we have heard about in the recent testimony of serving officers,” said Michael Pecic, a former police officer and the CEO of In Safe Hands, Educators in Safety.
“In this particular case, we are talking about behaviours like sexual harassment … that appear to be tolerated and normalised within the QPS culture.
“What is fundamentally missing in the first place is the education piece around identifying these behaviours, what to do to call it out, and then the processes for complaints and how they will be supported.”
