Cop Stood Down for Catching Criminals

You’d think catching criminals during a youth crime crisis would be rewarded. Nope, not for Senior Sergeant Arron Ottaway. Sen Sgt Ottaway works as a district duty officer on the Gold Coast, a role which requires split-second decisions to be made regularly. Earlier this year, a group of thieves had stolen an Audi Q5 on January 29. On January 31, the Audi was driven to a house in the Gold Coast and people armed with weapons got out and threatened people at the home before stealing a Volkswagen Arteon. On February 1, police deployed tyre-deflating devices to try to catch the criminals. For 18 minutes, the Volkswagen was driving on its rims, so Sen Sgt Ottaway authorised the pursuing officers to ram the stolen car in order to stop the criminals. It worked and the criminals were arrested. However, Sen Sgt Ottaway was stood down for not following protocol. You know, catching criminals during a statewide crime crisis is a big no-no here in Queensland.

This is the second time Sen Sgt Ottaway has been stood down, after he was last year placed on desk duties after allowing police to perform a precision immobilisation technique (PIT) manoeuvre in order to stop a stolen car driven by teens. After the sanction, an anonymous police officer stated, “Our boss has been benched because he was trying to catch crooks. We have never been taught or trained on how to box in or PIT a car. The offenders were never going to stop.”

In response to the most recent stand down of Sen Sgt Ottaway, Queensland Police Union President Ian Leavers stated, “This is an example of the disconnect between senior management in the South Eastern Police Region and frontline police. Senior Sergeant Ottaway should be receiving commendation for coordinating the apprehension of serious criminals and instead the police hierarchy are standing him down from operational duty. It is no surprise crime is out of control in the Gold Coast when the police hierarchy are so out of touch with frontline policing that they would rather stand down hard working police than let them apprehend criminals.”

Actually, in the middle of 2023, some leaked police emails showed how frustrated Sen Sgt Ottaway was with the chronic shortage of police officers amid a crime crisis. The emails read, “The QPS is asking too much of me – I cannot continue to work by myself as a DDO on the Gold Coast at peak times, or I will make a mistake that will have a high consequence. We, as DDOs, are continually getting asked to overview more, make more decisions, run multiple high-risk jobs, consider high-risk domestic violence offenders, liaise with Queensland Ambulance over mental health, approve transports … you get it, the list goes on.

“There are so many jobs and competing interests that I’m losing my mind. Tonight has been relentless, just like last night. Last night, I didn’t stand up for four-and-a-half hours due to the workload. I eat at the computer.”

“Three stolen cars were rolling through the Gold Coast, one at high speed treating the highway like a racetrack. So bad was the driving that members of the public were calling Triple 0. So frustrated are the members of the public, that instead of calling police when the crooks were actually breaking into the house, the street got together, chased the baddies and smashed the front windscreen of the stolen car they were in.”

“An off-duty senior commissioned officer rang for help because a UID (under the influence of drugs), violent, shirtless offender was in his yard and he was rolling around on the ground fighting with him. It gets worse. The off-duty officer and his wife had called a number of times. You guessed it – no cops, no on-road DDO, no regional duty officer to go.”

“I have to decide on countless occasions whether to allow police crews to transport a mental health patient to hospital because an ambulance did not turn up or was unavailable. I’m asked to decide, with zero medical training and virtually no information, of whether I should allow our people to do these transports. I guess I’ll be the one in trouble for that as well when the patient dies in police custody.”

As you can tell, Sen Sgt Ottaway and other Queensland Police are under extreme pressure with lack of resources and lack of support. But yet, when they catch criminals, they’re not supported by senior management, instead, they get punished. What does Commissioner Katarina Carroll have to say? What the hell is wrong with the QPS?

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