Top cop accused in bullying claim
A GOLD Coast police officer has accused the city’s top cop of “pre-Fitzgerald conduct” during a hearing into bullying allegations.
Senior Constable James Treanor yesterday tried to have Assistant Commissioner Brian Wilkins and acting Chief Superintendent Craig Hanlon added as respondents in a bullying claim in the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission (QIRC) in Brisbane.
Sen Const Treanor has lodged a request for a stop bullying order. He has accused four senior Gold Coast police officers of bullying over seven years and having his career held back due to “frivolous claims”.
Sen Const Treanor has accused the senior police of setting quotas to sting Gold Coast motorists, sweeping a domestic violence claim under the carpet because it involved one of their own, and systemic bullying.
He told the commission yesterday he wanted to have the Assistant Commissioner and Chief Superintendent added to the bullying proceedings after an incident following a police mental health breakfast at the Broadbeach Bowls Club in late March.
In the club car park, Sen Const Treanor allegedly asked Assistant Commissioner Wilkins if mental health help was available to all officers.
Sen Const Treanor claims he swore loudly after the top cop called him a “smart arse”.
The QIRC was told yesterday Assistant Commissioner Wilkins and Chief Super Hanlon made a written request for Sen Const Treanor to be stood down following the incident at the mental health breakfast.
Documents filed to the QIRC show that request referenced complaints Sen Const Treanor made to the Crime and Corruption Commission in 2015 about “lack of leadership, inequitable work practises and unethical behaviour” within Gold Coast police.
“For them to have used these matters to have me stood down is preFitzgerald conduct,” Sen Const Treanor told the Commission.
“These people, they operate as a gang, they feed off each other.”
QIRC Commissioner John Thompson told Sen Const Treanor he could not add the two senior police officers to the bullying claim as they were not related to the ongoing bullying allegations made against the other four senior police officers.
He said Sen Const Treanor could file a separate bullying claim in the QIRC against the top police if he wished.
Sen Const Treanor is yet to decide if he will go ahead with that application.
He has six weeks to complete an affidavit in relation to bullying allegations against the other four officers.