‘THIS IS A BETRAYAL OF THE PUBLIC AND AN INSULT TO COPS ON THE COALFACE OF THE CRIME CRISIS’
Insiders say unreliable crime stats robbing Coast of more police
GOLD Coast cops were pressured into fudging crime figures, according to a scathing report by the Auditor General.
The State Opposition called for a review into allegations officers were pressured to manipulate crime data after a report by the Gold Coast Bulletin in late January.
A probe by the Auditor General into the reliability of data from the criminal justice system released to State Parliament yesterday focused on shonky crime reporting on the Glitter Strip.
“In the district we examined in detail – the Gold Coast district – we found governance over crime data is poor,” the report said.
“Unclear guidance and inadequate understanding of data classification rules contributed to errors and inconsistent classification of offences. Additionally, officers’ inappropriate practices in this district of altering crime data statistics have gone unnoticed or unchallenged at senior levels.
“Gold Coast staff reported that an unhealthy focus on achieving performance targets, rather than data quality, has contributed to these results.”
Police insiders say the findings mean the public is being misled about crime rates. They say providing a better picture of clearance rates robs the Coast of gaining more officers.
The Auditor General found the Gold Coast district had the highest number of offences withdrawn between 2010–11 and 2015–16 compared with any other Queensland Police Service district.
Officers in the Gold Coast district employed methods aimed at having victims withdraw complaints, including:
• Soliciting victims to withdraw complaints.
• Sending victims letters requiring them to respond within seven days or police will “presume” the victim wants no further action and will withdraw the complaint.
• Adopting a three strikes policy, where if they cannot contact victims after three attempts, they change the complaint to withdrawn.
These complaints relate to offences, including assault both serious and less serious, burglary, stealing, and wilful damage offences.
The Auditor General identified practices in the Gold Coast district of police incorrectly changing the status of reports from unsolved to unfounded.
“These practices are not in accordance with the national crime recording standard or the Queensland Police Service’s definitions of unfounded. This results in these offences being excluded from the reported crime rate, which reduces the reported unsolved crime rate,” the report said.
Senior Coast police have been under pressure from the Government after the region recorded a 66 per cent increase in assaults, according to crime data released in December last year. The overall crime rate officially rose nearly 30 per cent.
Police Minister Mark Ryan said he had been assured all recommendations had been implemented by the QPS.
“This report cannot be sugar-coated – there are areas that need improvement and there has already been some moves to address those issues raised in the report,” he said.
Opposition spokesman for police Tim Mander called for Mr Ryan to come clean about the true crime situation.
“It’s also a great concern that Gold Coast policing is under the microscope, for all the wrong reasons,” he said.
“Reports about victims being encouraged to withdraw complaints and specific under-reporting issues on the Gold Coast also fundamentally erode confidence in the system – something which is unfair to the thousands of men and women in blue who have a difficult enough job as it is.”
He said QPS leadership had questions to answer.
QPS Commissioner Ian Stewart said all anomalies identified during an audit of reports that had been classified as unfounded or withdrawn had been corrected.
“A detailed investigation into the finalisation of crime reports specifically on the Gold Coast was also undertaken by the Ethical Standards Command,” he said.
“No systemic inappropriate behaviour was detected.”
Mr Ryan said he expected the highest standards from all police and urged anyone who had felt their complaint had not been handled correctly to call Policelink on 131 444 or the Crime and Corruption Commission.