Review of the police discipline system
Overview
In early 2009, a significant number of the public submissions received in response to the Queensland Government’s discussion paper, Integrity and Accountability in Queensland, expressed concerns about the current discipline processes applying to members of the Queensland Police Service (QPS).
In November 2009, the Attorney-General therefore requested the Crime and Misconduct Commission (CMC) to conduct an independent review of current processes for the management of police discipline and misconduct matters.
In our report on our review, we made 11 recommendations for improving the police disciplinary system and ensuring police accountability and integrity. One of these was that together with the CMC, the QPS review its complaints management policies and procedures with a view to developing an improved system that is simple, effective, transparent and strong.
In response to this recommendation, the government appointed a panel of independent experts to conduct a further review and propose models for a new system. A steering committee consisting of the CMC Chairperson, the Commissioner of Police and the Director-General of the Department of the Premier and Cabinet oversaw the work of this panel.
The panel prepared a report making 57 recommendations to improve the system. The Queensland Government made the report available for public comment for six weeks until 5 July 2011.
In its response to the panel's report and the public submissions, the government accepted 56 of the 57 recommendations.
Current status
Initiatives already underway include:
- establishment of a CMC/QPS committee to assess complaints (Recommendation 13)
- discussions in relation to definitions of ‘good faith’ (Recommendation 24)
- discussions in relation to changes to misconduct categories (Recommendations 10 and 16)
- finalisation of a CMC plan to trial a completely civilian team to investigate police misconduct for six months from January 2012 (Recommendation 1).
Related documents and links
CMC report |
Setting the standard: a review of current processes for the management of police discipline and misconduct matters (PDF, 3.3 MB) |
Independent panel's report |
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Government response |
Government response to the independent review of the Queensland police complaints, discipline and misconduct system (PDF 264 KB) |
Submissions |
Submissions received by the government in response to the independent panel's report |
Media releases and statements |
CMC welcomes improvements to Queensland’s police disciplinary system (29.08.2011) CMC statement on police discipline system review (24.05.2011) Standard set for Queensland’s police discipline system (21.12.2010) |
See also
- Discussion paper: Integrity and Accountability in Queensland (PDF, 413 KB)
- Response to Integrity and Accountability in Queensland (PDF, 428 KB)
