City facing cops crisis

Peter Foley | 3rd July 2009

NEW Queensland Police Union president Ian Leavers says more police need to be on Ipswich streets to cope with the city's escalating growth.

Mr Leavers, who was elected on Wednesday, spent 15 of his 20 years as a police officer in Ipswich serving in general duties, the traffic branch and the Child Protection and Investigation Unit.

“Ipswich is a dynamic, growing area and we have to ensure that with growth in the community, there is sufficient growth in the police as well,” Mr Leavers said yesterday.

“We've really got to keep the pressure on to maintain sufficient police numbers in the Ipswich region.

“Ipswich is an area that's changing dramatically. I first started in Ipswich in 1995 and I've seen an incredible change in that time. It's a really progressive town now.

“When you get a big increase in growth it brings problems and you need to have the resources to combat that if they occur. With a high visibility police presence, it certainly goes a long way.”

For police in the city now, Mr Leavers said many officers were “bogged down with being stuck behind desks on computers”.

“The release of new technology like QPRIME and the alcolmeters has ensured police spend too much time doing administrative tasks whereas they should be out on the beat,” he said.

“That is what the community expects.

“To get information out of QPRIME is good but it's convoluted and confusing to put the information in and that's where police are spending a lot of their time doing their job.”

Mr Leavers also renewed his call from before the union election for mandatory sentencing, especially for assaulting police.

“There needs to be mandatory sentencing to send a clear message that if you assault police, you'll go to jail,” he said.

“I think the courts and the government need to get serious and send a clear message about assaults on people including the police.”

Police Minister Neil Roberts responded to Mr Leavers' claims late yesterday.

Mr Roberts said the “state-of-the-art QPRIME system has considerably enhanced policing in this state”.

“QPRIME is a powerful tool and is saving officers hours of investigative work that needed to be undertaken using previous systems,” Mr Roberts said.

“As with any major systems overhaul in a large-scale organisation, it will take time for everyone to adapt to the new system.”

Mr Roberts said the allocation of police officers was a matter for the Police Commissioner.

However, he said the strength of the police service in the Ipswich police district had increased by 38 officers in the past 12 months, from 341 officers in June 2008 to 381 in June this year.