QPS launches first recruitment campaign in 5 years via Hero Brisbane
Content warning: The video in this article mentions domestic violence. If you or someone you care about needs support, please contact 1800 RESPECT or 1800 737 732. In an emergency, call 000.
Hero Brisbane has released a new recruitment campaign for the Queensland Police Service (QPS), titled ‘You’ve Made It’.
The campaign features QPS officers and their various backgrounds, and aims to show that great police officers are made, not born.
During my service with the QPS (~17yrs as General Duties Officer) until being compulsorily aged retired in January 2021, I was unable to locate any raw data that dealt with uniformed staffing retention/ wastage rates.
Whilst there are officers who look forward to retiring at 60yrs, I am confident there are those, like me, who would like to continue their service until 65yrs. I also appreciate that as one ages, work related injuries take longer to overcome & as such, having officers aged 60 – 65yrs may not be suited to be “on the street” getting physical with offenders.
During my service I lost count of the junior officers who expressed a desire to “get off the street” and find a “Mon – Fri, 8a – 4p job”. I also observed manning issues at stations where difficulties in staffing core shifts were had.
GD Officers were continually being tasked to conduct jobs that were allocated by their station, PCC (VKR), etc which in turn delayed the GD Officers attending to their Task List.
I would suggest that retention of officers who wish to continue serving after 60yrs would be beneficial to the QPS. These officers could be gainfully employed to attend the more mundane tasks such as conducting door knock enquiries, collection of CCTV footage, obtaining witness statements, conducting weapon audits, station risk management duties, counter duties, etc, thus “freeing up” the first response officers for more pressing tasks. I would also suggest any officer upon reaching 60yrs, also remains at that pay group with no further promotion if if they wish to continue serving until 65yrs.