On Your Bike Police Commissioner

Reports coming out today suggest Queensland Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll will not be renewing her $650,000-a-year contract set to expire in July 2024. It’s no surprise, really, she was already on the nose, with a growing number of police dissatisfied with her leadership with growing pressure on multiple issues including police staff shortages, escalating domestic violence issues, and the growing outcry on youth crime. Not to mention the recent revolt from within the QPS ranks after a senior Gold Coast police officer, Senior Sergeant Arron Ottaway, was stood down following a claim he helped catch armed offenders by authorising officers ram a stolen car. Recent reports show that another two Gold Coast police officers are facing disciplinary action after helping catch armed juvenile offenders in a stolen car. Don’t they know? You’re not allowed to catch criminals in Queensland under Commissioner Carroll’s watch.

Of course, the ABC are pointing out that in 2019 she became the first woman commissioner. That’s the only thing that matters now over at the ABC… identity! Other reports paint a fairly grim picture: “Katarina Carroll facing open revolt, 300 senior cops meet over leadership failure”; “Fix youth crime or look for a new job”; “Under-fire Commissioner to be given list of concerns by hundreds of fed up officers”. You get the idea.

But the proof is in the pudding. Let’s take a look at some of the crime statistics under the Police Commissioner’s watch. This is the myPolice Queensland Police News Queensland Crime Statistics website (link below). I’ll be clicking on the Advanced tab, and setting the date range starting from July 2019, when Commissioner Carroll got the top job. This is all offences, noting that there was a significant drop when Queensland declared a public health emergency. You may remember that. Due to people going out less, less crime was obviously being committed, but it’s certainly headed back up since then.

But more interestingly, you can filter by types of crime. Let’s look at All Offences Against the Person, so things like murder, assault, sexual offences, robbery, and so on. The results are much more telling. There has been a significant increase in violent crime. You’re not imagining it. But this is the raw numbers. It doesn’t take into account population increases, but you can show the rate instead of the raw numbers just above the graph. So let’s click on that. So yes, even when accounting for population increase, violent crime has been on the rise, significantly. Feel free to have a look for yourself for other types of crime.

While making this video, I just saw breaking news that Commissioner Carroll has announced her resignation. Here’s some of what she had to say: “This morning, I have advised the minister that I will not seek an extension to my contract as commissioner. I made this decision, and was going to have the discussion about not renewing my contract with the minister in about two weeks time. But because of the heightened speculation and commentary, I’ve brought these discussions forward. I will finish in my role next Friday March 1.”

So there you go, I didn’t even have a chance to publish this video. The commissioner is no more. I wonder who’s next?

QUEENSLAND CRIME STATISTICS
https://mypolice.qld.gov.au/queensland-crime-statistics/

MUSIC
Allégro by Emmit Fenn