The Crime and Misconduct Commission has rejected Police Union criticism, and endorsed the actions of the Queensland Police Service (QPS) in responding to an incident involving an off-duty SERT officer at a recent football carnival at Kingaroy.
CMC Chairperson, Martin Moynihan QC said the Police Union had depicted as overkill the response of the QPS Ethical Standards Command in deploying a team of senior officers to investigate the matter.
‘That criticism is invalid,’ Mr Moynihan said.
‘The CMC has been briefed on the incident and considers the response of the Ethical Standards Command was appropriate.
‘Although the investigation centres on the actions of only one officer, the conduct occurred in the presence of others and it makes sense that that ESC made every effort to interview all witnesses as quickly as possible and while everyone was in the one location.
‘I appreciate how this might have caused practical difficulties for the Police Union in giving advice to its members, but I understand why the ESC responded in this way,’ he said.
Mr Moynihan also rejected a suggestion, implied by recent Union comments, that the incident itself was frivolous in nature.
‘The alleged behaviour of a number of off-duty police officers, if established, fell well below community expectations.
‘It has been reported that Commissioner Atkinson was furious about the conduct, and I can easily understand why that would be,’ Mr Moynihan said.
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