February 6, 2019
Police Minister Mark Ryan has denied the return of the Crime Stoppers hotline to police control will destroy public confidence in the anonymous crime-reporting system.
It was widely reported on Wednesday morning that the charity-run organisation will close next week due to a $250,000 shortfall in funding, meaning about 20 full-time staff members and 45 volunteers will lose their jobs.
Queensland Law Society president Bill Potts told ABC Radio he was concerned the move would see a reduction in the number of calls.
“The people who answered the calls are not police officers — they have the time and they’re not in a hurry as they’re not dealing with an emergency,” he said.
However, Mr Ryan told reporters in Kingaroy he did not know where the $250,000 figure came from because the State Government had, in fact, poured an extra $1.75 million into Crime Stoppers just over 12 months ago.
And he described as “a nonsense” suggestions the change back to police control could lead to a drop in calls.
“If you walk down the main street of Kingaroy here and ask whether or not they thought a police agency answered their Crime Stoppers phone calls, I bet you will find 99 times out of a 100 that people think it is already answered by the police service,” he said.
Mr Ryan said the decision made by the independent Crime Stoppers Board that it was no longer viable for them to run the hotline was not due to a lack of State Government funding.
He described the model of an independent hotline as “an experiment” which required co-operation and participation from other States and the Federal Government to be sustainable.
“The Queensland Government threw our money behind the project into the experiment but unfortunately other States didn’t sign up to it, and the Federal Government didn’t sign up to it as well,” he said.
Mr Ryan said the Crime Stoppers hotline would now operate in Queensland in the same way that it did in other States – and in Queensland before 2015 – under police control.
“The Crime Stoppers hotline is just coming back to the Queensland Police Service,” Mr Ryan said.
“The Police Commissioner has assured me that he has sufficient resources to continue to run the Crime Stoppers hotline.
“It will be business as usual. No one will see any changes.
“But the Commissioner did say that if he requires any additional resources, the Queensland Government had already provided that guarantee in the form of an election commitment which we made at the 2017 election.”
Mr Ryan confirmed that Crime Stoppers would be run out of the PoliceLink headquarters, which has a mix of civilian and police staff, but said special protocols would be in place to handle Crime Stoppers inquiries.
“On the basis of anonymity, it will be run in the same way as the Crime Stoppers hotline has been run in the past. If people want to be anonymous, they will be anonymous,” he said.
However, current hotline workers would not be automatically transferred across.
Mr Ryan said said it was up to the independent Board to deal with employment arrangements for the current staff but the police call centre was “always recruiting”.
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Trevor Watts
Shadow Police Minister Trevor Watts said Mr Ryan’s insistence that police could cope with the closure of the call centre lacked credibility.
“According to Mark Ryan, the Police Commissioner says QPS can cope with the extra calls,” Mr Watts said.
“He needs to stop hiding behind the Police Commissioner and take responsibility for fighting crime in Queensland. That’s what he’s paid to do.
“The Queensland Police Union says staffing levels are critically low and at least 100 extra officers are needed in every police district.
“Our police should be on the beat preventing and detecting crime, not taking calls to Crime Stoppers.
“This news is also a savage blow to Crime Stoppers’ 20 paid call-centre staff and its selfless team of 45 volunteers.”
Deputy Opposition Leader Tim Mander called on the State Government to “save” Crime Stoppers, saying police were already at “bursting point”.
“The last thing they need is additional administrative duties,” he said.
“Crime Stoppers has been incredibly successful in this State.
“Thousands of people have rung in and hundreds of crimes have been solved because of those tip-offs.
“One of the great distinctives about Crime Stoppers is that people can ring with confidence, knowing that they will remain anonymous, and that’s why it’s been so effective.
“Why do they need to change it?”
