Farcical situation for police

POLICE in Townsville have a hard enough job without being lumbered with new recruits who can’t even drive a police car.

In something reminiscent of a scene from Police Academy, new recruits have been deployed without the most basic of training.

The move means more senior police officers are having to chauffeur the young recruits around, something that seems crazy when the region has one of the worst crime rates in the state.

The excuse give by the Government is they couldn’t do the training because of COVID-19.

Journalist Shayla Bulloch exclusively revealed 38 of the 55 police officers that graduated from Townsville Police Academy were not driver trained, despite graduating early.

It means the inexperienced recruits can legally drive a police vehicle, but cannot undertake common tasks required as a police officer.

This includes driving under lights and sirens, intercepting cars, and speeding up or driving through a red light to intercept a vehicle.

So, if they are driving and a chase is to take place the new recruits have to pull over and let someone else take control.

Ironically Police Minister Mark Ryan told parliament recently how the region’s new police were “better equipped and trained than ever before” while touting Labor’s “record” $2.6 billion police budget.

Opposition spokesman for North Queensland Dale Last said this was a “dramatic failure”. “This is a disgraceful situation that should never have been allowed to happen,” he said.

“Urgent duty driving is a fundamental part of policing and not only are these officers hamstrung in terms of responding to the most urgent of jobs, this failure also puts the officers, their colleagues and the general public in real danger.”

How already overworked police officers are forced to deal with this every day and on dangerous assignments beggars belief.