In Australia, a crisis in law enforcement is developing as police departments struggle to find new recruits amid allegations that officers are being treated “worse than suspects.”
Police unions and authorities in New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, and Western Australia have voiced complaints about poor treatment, a lack of employees, and high work expenditures as a “exodus” of cops quit their jobs.
The issue is so acute that Queensland Police announced last week that the state’s largest-ever recruiting drive to stop the rising crime rate will lower the minimum age for applications to just 17.
The Sunshine State’s law enforcement capabilities have reached breaking point due to a recent rise in theft and violent crime.
The overall crime rate in Queensland increased by 5% in the last year, with robberies rising by 33%, assaults increasing by 69%, sexual crime rising by 14%, and break-ins rising by 23%.
Additionally, 25% of all grand theft auto cases are from Queensland, making it Australia’s epicentre of auto theft.
With the Queensland Police force inducting the most rookies in a single swearing-in ceremony in more than ten years, a big recruitment drive to combat the rising crime rate is currently underway.
The Queensland Police Service told Daily Mail Australia that the shift will “enable more young Queenslanders to kick-start an exciting career in police” and denied that the age drop is connected to the recent crime wave in the state.
However, the move generated a significant backlash, with many community members advocating for the hiring of officers with more life experience in response to claims that police are handling domestic violence situations improperly.
‘Only thing I can imagine that’s more terrifying than a Queensland cop is a 17-year-old Queensland cop,’ one person wrote on Twitter.
‘Not old enough to vote or buy a beer but okay to be a cop…’ another said.
‘Policing is a job for sensible, mature people. Not someone whose brain hasn’t finished growing,’ another wrote.
Applicants must still successfully complete the Year 12 certificate, pass the necessary cognitive, physical, and psychological examinations, and meet the security, integrity, medical, and interview selection standards (or equivalent).
By 2025, the state hopes to recruit 1,450 more policemen and 575 new employees thanks to a fresh recruitment campaign.
Male officers were accused of rampant misogynistic behaviour, sexist remarks, and sexual harassment in a submission made earlier this year in response to a state review into Queensland Police culture.
The Guardian detailed some of the allegations including male officers calling the area where female detectives sat as ‘c*** corner’, a male officer saying a female investigator was ‘a good operator until her arse got fat’ and another officer asking if ‘this a real rape or is she looking for a free pap smear?’
Meanwhile, NSW Police Association of NSW President Kevin Morton slammed the state’s recruitment system for charging potential officers about $17,000 for its training program – a major barrier driving potential recruits away.
‘We’re missing out on quality potential police officers in this state because people simply can’t afford the application process,’ Mr Morton said at a press conference in May.
NSW is the only state where aspiring cops have to spend thousands of dollars and months of their lives to join the force.
Candidates first have to complete a university certificate course in workforce essentials before they can apply to join the force.
Successful applicants then have to pay for an almost nine-month training course at Goulburn Police Academy where they are restricted to the facility and separated from their families.
‘They’re not even getting paid for it – in fact, they’re paying out of their life savings to do it,’ Mr Morton said.
NSW Police was forced to postpone its June training course due to a lack of applicants and schedule conflicts.
On the other side of the country, more than 300 officers walked out on the WA Police force in the last financial year – with 60 in June alone.
The WA Police Union said claims by the force and Premier Mark McGowan that officers are being ‘lured’ away by high-paying mining jobs is untrue.
‘More than three-quarters of survey respondents, 77.4 per cent, said dissatisfaction with WA Police Force management and culture was a reason they resigned,’ WA Police Union President Mick Kelly said last Friday.
‘Only one of them has referenced swapping a police station for a FIFO gig on a mine site, whereas dozens have explained how working for the agency decayed their mental health, demolished their personal relationships and destroyed their work-life balance.
‘The WA Police Force’s poor human resources practices are what’s powering the accelerating exodus of officers from the agency, not rich resources sector jobs.’
Aside from new job offers, a survey by the union found the top five reasons officers left the force were dissatisfaction with management and culture, long working hours and/or high workload, lack of career development or promotion opportunities, family circumstances and poor pay and conditions.
Five devastated former officers described working with ‘a lack of support’.
‘The WA Police Force management doesn’t care about its people. The value placed on experience, particularly frontline, is non-existent,’ one former officer said.
‘The minister’s comments about the culture problem show how out of touch the hierarchy are. It saddens me to know how many experienced officers are leaving because they are so fed up with sub-par treatment.
‘I participated in an internal interview in which I was treated worse than how we’re expected to treat suspects. The whole system is broken.’
Another ex-officer said after five years working ‘critically understaffed’ regional WA, the situation had become ‘dangerous’.
‘The workload was extremely excessive, expecting us to do more with less and sending us probationers to make up numbers. It was very dangerous at times,’ the officer said.
‘For me, the benefits weren’t enough to continue to put my own safety at risk. The culture wasn’t positive and the last few years I dreaded going to work.’
A third said: ‘The job itself is hard work. Throw in the office politics and it’s a lose-lose. Fighting with the people on the street then coming back in and fighting with the office politics,’ a third said.
Mr Kelly addressed the survey findings during a press conference on Friday.
‘Our people have said enough is enough, my mental health and family relationships are breaking down,’ he said.
‘They’re going to situations, crime scenes, which are extraordinarily confronting. They need some support.
‘Can I suggest to the premier he comes back from his jaunt overseas and talks to police at the coalface?’
WA Police told Daily Mail Australia it is now considering hiring police officers from overseas to help manage staff shortages.
‘Given the current circumstances, WA Police is canvassing a range of options to attract future recruits,’ a spokesperson said.
‘This includes possible interstate and overseas recruitment campaigns, however decisions are yet to be made in relation to any proposed extension of the current recruitment campaign.’
Two weeks ago South Australia’s police union called for the state’s police and recruitment systems to be reviewed as officers struggle to cope with dwindling force numbers.
‘For more than 12 months now we have been telling commissioner Grant Stevens that his district policing model is failing,’ Police Association of South Australia president Mark Carroll told ABC.
‘It’s failing front line officers and investigators and it’s failing the community of South Australia.’
Mr Carroll said SA Police are ‘struggling to maintain numbers’.
‘We find it a staggering indictment on SAPOL’s recruiting systems that in a state of a million and a half people, we can’t get 90 people to fill the recruit courses,’ he said.
The union’s representatives were to meet on Wednesday to further examine the issues the SA Police are now facing.
There are concerns that there won’t soon be enough officers available to respond to crimes due to the lack and a “enormous jump” in crime rates in SA, with 5,100 more offences than usual committed in April alone.