100 cops needed in Cairns, QPU says

POLICE staffing is critical and 1650 extra officers are needed immediately as jobs take up to eight hours to attend, Queensland’s Police Union has sensationally claimed.

QPU president Ian Leavers said every station across the state was understaffed.

Routine code three jobs, which could include attending a traffic accident or a welfare check, had lengthy delays.

“We feel like we are letting the community down,” Mr Leavers said.

“We need an increase of at least 100 police in each and every police region and command across the state.

“We are already seeing some wait times for a police response to calls for service from members of the public for code three jobs to be as long as up to eight hours.”

The union has figures from across the state and has asked police at the coalface how many more they need.

In regional areas, available frontline officers were much lower than rostered numbers.

The union’s demands include 1650 extra police officers across the state, which would include 100 for areas like Cairns.

Mr Leavers said child safety needed a large boost of at least 150 officers, including those who monitored and kept checks on child sex offenders.

“The Commissioner and the Government need to stop deliberately ignoring the massive problem of a lack of police numbers,” he said.

Police Minister Mark Ryan said the Government had provided Commissioner Ian Stewart with a budget of $2.5 billion this year, an increase of 13 per cent since Labor was elected.

The budget was allocated to be spent at the Commissioner’s discretion.

A QPS spokeswoman said: “The QPS has sufficient staff and resources to deliver professional policing services to the community.”