Australia: Hundreds to go in Queensland police shake-up

Queensland Police Commissioner Ian Stewart

The biggest overhaul of Queensland police since the infamous Fitzgerald inquiry will remove more than 100 senior officers and scrap regional offices in some areas of the state.

Police Commissioner Ian Stewart, who was installed in the job last November, today announced the restructure of the service in a bid to cut bureaucracy and boost front line staff.

“This new structure will put more police officers on the front line and allow decisions to be made more quickly at the coal face,” Commissioner Stewart said in a statement.

“The QPS has had the same basic structure for 20 years while the business of policing has become increasingly complex.

“To meet these demands we require better use of technology, officers’ time and resources across all facets of policing, from general duties to the most complex cyber-crime.”

About 110 commissioned officers will go under the plan, as well as the number of official police districts.

More than 200 staff are also expected to be offered redundancies.

Mr Stewart was to announce details of the plan this afternoon.

The state’s current eight policing regions will be reduced to five, and the current 31 police districts will be cut to 15.

Three assistant commissioners will also be removed from regional offices.

“At this stage it is likely that Cairns, Maroochydore, and Mt Gravatt will no longer have regional offices located there,” Mr Stewart said.

“However, chief superintendents or superintendents will remain in these locations and an assistant commissioner will remain in charge of a larger overarching region.”

Mr Stewart said the changes were aimed at reducing bureaucracy and delivering a more efficient police service.

He said the service would liaise with relevant unions and affected members as the changes were rolled out.

“Fairness and merit will be the hallmarks of the processes we use to assist any member who may face redundancy or a move to another location or task,” the police chief said.

Deputy Commissioner Ross Barnett will lead the implementation process.

Queensland‘s Fitzgerald inquiry into police corruption ran from 1987 to 1989 and resulted in the jailing of three former ministers and a police commissioner.

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• Qld police boss considers job cuts (bigpondnews.com)
• Commissioner confirms Qld police restructure (abc.net.au)
• Qld police review expected today (bigpondnews.com)
• Australian political leaders off and running (craighill.net)