March 19, 2019
Almost 200,000 calls to Policelink went unanswered or were disconnected last year, according to data released by the State Government.
An Opposition Question on Notice revealed 197,648 calls went unanswered or were disconnected in 2018, compared with 26,555 in 2014 when the LNP was in power.
Only 3 per cent of calls were unanswered in 2014, while 17 per cent were unanswered in 2018.
According to the Queensland Police website:
Policelink is the primary contact point for the Queensland Police Service. Policelink was introduced in 2010 as a central contact point across the State, to enhance the ability of the Queensland Police Service to respond in a professional and timely manner. The contact centre is staffed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. By phoning 131-444, you will speak with a Policelink Client Service Officer who can assist to generate a non-urgent property incident report, provide answers to general police inquiries, among other functions.
Opposition Leader and Member for Nanango Deb Frecklington said police officers were missing out on vital tips to help keep the community safe.
“The amount of calls going unanswered by Policelink is horrendous,” Mrs Frecklington said.
“Information from the public is crucial to preventing and responding to crime but people are hanging up on Policelink in record numbers.
“These damning statistics show the Palaszczuk Labor Government should never have allowed the Crime Stoppers call centre to close.
“Crime is rising fast, frontline police are at breaking point, and Policelink can’t cope with the mountain of calls.”
Opposition police spokesman Trevor Watts warned the closure of the Crime Stoppers call centre would pile even more pressure on police resources.
“The only reason Labor Police Minister Mark Ryan put out a media release this morning was because the LNP had a Question on Notice exposing this shameful handling of calls,” Mr Watts said.
“Annastacia Palaszczuk must sack her incompetent Police Minister.
“The LNP was the first to fund Crime Stoppers and we pledged an extra $1 million for the charity at the last election.”
Police Minister Ryan said he had been advised by the QPS that 11 new client service officers recently joined operational teams at Policelink and a further 16 were in their ninth week of training.
- Related article: Minister Defends Crime Stoppers Move
Oh boy… The LNP Leader is making criticisms using the LNP period as basis of credibility, then the Shadow Minister discredits them AND the QPS in the one sentence.
This is woeful fear mongering placing doubt over our quality Policing Resources, the Officers and Personnel that live in our Communities.
Mr Ryan, ALP: “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”.
If the numbers as stated by the LNP Leader in 2014 were so low, surely going back to that model, ie. Police control, is a good action by Labor.
LNP Shadow Police Minister Trevor Watts: “Mr Ryan’s insistence that police could cope with the closure of the call centre lacked credibility”.
So going back to the claimed better numbers of 2014, under Police control, is lacking credibility, yet the LNP Leader claimed that year was far better…
Not forgetting the independent Crime Stoppers model relied on all States AND Federal cooperation, and the change was decided upon by the independent Board, not the Palaszczuk Labor Governance that had put in over $1.2 million.
Oops, again it seems.
So in summary, you just completely ignored the numbers released by YOUR Labor government and tried the old political favourite excuse of “look over there”. No admitting there is an issue and taking responsibility. No resolution to get it right and do better.
Cap’n, I suggest going to the related article on here where the Police Minister has explained this was an “experiment”. Clearly by changing, after the States and Federal Governments failed to agree on continuing AND the independent Board DECIDED to halt it, Labor has accepted the fate, working with QPS, as it was prior.
You will also see that the Labor Minister quoted how much Labor put into the program, again pointing out the LNP MPs are simply playing politics over crime management, which is maintained by the QPS under the core value “separation of powers”.
I stated that Labor is taking responsibility and acting to get it right, by going back to the previously police-managed model.
It is the LNP MPs claiming it was both a success AND a failure, as stated in my comment, above, quoting the LNP Leader versus the LNP Shadow Police Minister.
It simply cannot be both now can it …
The Qld police force were forced to take over operations to maintain this service when funding from other States and the Federal Government failed to back a centralized Crime Stoppers centre in Queensland.
“The Crime Stoppers board decided to trial a centre in Queensland where they could centralise the Crime Stoppers calls from around Australia and assist with national government enquiries,” he said.
“The Queensland Government supported them and most recently with $1.75 million over a number of years to support the operation. Unfortunately, where the experiment failed was the other States and the national government didn’t buy into it, and without that buy-in from other States and the Federal Government it’s just not viable to run it.” (ABC News)