The majority of Queenslanders continue to have confidence in the integrity of the Queensland Police Service (QPS), according to a Crime and Misconduct Commission (CMC) survey released today.
The CMC Public Attitudes Survey found that 80 per cent of respondents believed that most police were honest and generally behaved well.
Many respondents believed there would always be some corruption in the police service. Importantly, however, the survey also showed that there had been a steady decline in public tolerance of police misconduct since earlier surveys.
The CMC has carried out six surveys since July 1991 as part of its function of monitoring the QPS.
For the police service to be able to function effectively within the community, a positive image is essential. Assessing the public’s confidence in the integrity of the police service is important because it highlights areas that might need more attention before they become problematic.
The survey showed that there has been a steady decline over the years in people reporting dissatisfaction with the QPS, particularly young people. Of those who were dissatisfied, however, the most common reasons were the same as those reported in previous reports — that is, that an officer had acted in a rude, unfriendly or arrogant manner or had behaved unfairly.
For the first time, the survey has shown that respondents in Far North Queensland tended to have slightly more negative views of police behaviour than those in other areas. The reasons are unclear, and the CMC intends to examine this further in the next survey.
Public confidence in complaints processes remains reasonably high, but there has been a gradual decline, since 1995, in the general understanding of complaints systems. The reasons for this are unclear, but the finding serves as a timely message to the CMC and the Ethical Standards Command of the QPS that steps may need to be taken to increase public awareness about the systems available for making complaints.
ENDS
