Airlie beach abuse sounds the alarm over a rotten Queensland police culture

The violence dealt out by former officer Benjamin Price points to a grand-scale breakdown within our police force: "They showed no more caution than a bunch of druggies raiding a servo with a stick"

All Queensland police would have been shamed, embarrassed, humiliated and angered by videos showing former officer Benjamin Price strong-arming tiny Renee Toms and water-torturing Timothy Steele. Along with most ofthe 172,000 people who had watched the events on YouTube (as of Friday morning) they would have thought it was one of the lowest, most cowardly and disgusting displays of sadistic power-tripping they had seen.

Well, not of all of them, because the videos seemed to suggest that it was nothing much out of the ordinary at Airlie Beach police station, where officers are seen walking around the violence like you and I might step around a floor cleaner. It was very much business as usual, with a little bit of professional courtesy thrown in as one officer was seen handing Price the fire hose. There didn’t even seem to be the slightest bit of concern - let alone criminal cunning - over the fact that unsavoury events were being captured by video cameras, which they must have known about. They showed no more caution than a bunch of druggies raiding a servo with a stick.

This is the real problem for the Queensland Police Service as it deals with the backwash of a series of appalling events. That one policeman abused his authority is sad but no great surprise. But the fact that of nine police oticers on the periphery of the events that led to Price’s jailing only one, Constable Bree Sonter, did her duty as an officer and human being is shocking.

Five have quit and three are under investigation. Only Sonter has emerged with any credit, although her future in the force might not be a happy one. Throw in Price, and a failure rate of nine out of l0 is not too flash in any circumstance.

Airlie Beach is not exactly Gotham City, so this represents a failure of discipline, purpose, professionalism, process and moral courage on a grand scale. The force is justly proud of the fact that about a quarter of all complaints against officers are now made by police themselves but that cannot alter the fact that more than 50 per cent of those assigned to Airlie Beach were derelict in their duty.

If you subscribe to the rotten apple theory of policing, this barrel was pretty putrid, leaving a smell that has got right up the noses of most Queenslanders. It's not a question of police bashing. lt’s a question of squandered resources and squandered trust.

Think about it. One rogue cops gets off on brutalising people and, because of sins of omission, we lose five other trained officers and have three more under a very dark cloud. One rogue cop goes ape and all the good deeds, good policing and good reputations of thousands of others are trashed. And probably a million bucks is blown on compo for Price’s victims.

Attorney-General Cameron Dick says he is considering an appeal against the leniency of Price’s sentence because of the community outrage over the security camera footage.

They could throw away the key for all I care, but that’s not really the point. The point is that after an individual meltdown there was a collective breakdown in professionalism and process in a force that has more brass than a South American army, more regions than we have states, more districts than a red-headed kid has freckles, more inspectors and sergeants than there are bouncers at a Valley pub and more cops per capita driving desks than any other force in Australia.

Yet, it still seems to go off course with monotonous regularity, We need to know more, including just what happened to the mid-rampage reports of serious misconduct allegedly made about Price by his station oflicer.

ln a hierarchical institution, authority goes downward and responsibility goes upward. Sometimes, responsibility seems to hit a very low ceiling.

The article above by Terry Sweetman appeared (print only) in the Brisbane "Sunday Mail" on 17 October, 2010

Inexcusable failure to prosecute accomplices of thug Queensland cop

There is plenty of precedent for the prosecution of all cops present at the attacks -- e.g. R v Dytham [1979] Q.B. 722

THE Crime and Misconduct Commission has been urged to re-investigate the Airlie Beach police bashings following the release of disturbing video footage of assaults by jailed former officer Benjamin Price.

The videos show other officers watching and in one case assisting Price during his assaults on handcuffed offenders, but the police service has said there is not enough evidence to charge them.

In a letter sent to the CMC, Queensland Council of Civil Liberties vice-president Terry O'Gorman said there were indications the police handling of the case had been "less than rigorous". "It is submitted there are a number of unaddressed issues in relation to the Airlie Beach matter, which bear an unfortunate similarity to the steps engaged in by various police in relation to the cover-up of the Palm Island affair," the letter reads.

Mr O'Gorman said there were "unsatisfactory aspects" to the Price case that warranted a thorough investigation.

"Why have criminal charges not been laid against the other officers who were present when a fire hose was shoved down the complainant's throat?" Mr O'Gorman said. "Why was Mr Price charged with the lesser offence of assault occasioning bodily harm when on the facts publicly known a charge of torture was clearly open?"

He said other senior criminal lawyers were of the opinion that under the law, the other officers who were present during the assaults could be charged. "Presence in something like that is regarded as encouragement," Mr O'Gorman said. "Secondly, the bloke who hands the police officer the hose is an alleged accomplice. That's criminal law 101."

A CMC spokeswoman said the investigation into officers who observed the assaults was "ongoing". "The CMC will be provided with a report from the QPS Ethical Standards Command. This report will outline the action the ESC is recommending against the officers," she said.

The videos posted by Queensland Police on YouTube have now been viewed by almost 200,000 people and have also been uploaded to other websites in India, New Zealand, the UK and the US.

Mr O'Gorman also criticised the "doctoring" of the footage including the lack of audio, but the CMC spokeswoman said the release of the video was a matter for the QPS.

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COPS BASH COPS, TOO - THE QUEENSLAND POLICE

Media Release, Peter Pyke: 13 October 2010. (Peter Pyke was a Labor member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly from 1992 to 1995, representing the district of Mount Ommaney. Prior to entering politics he served with the Queensland Police Service for 15 years, rising to the rank of Police Sergeant)

In 1994 I told then-Queensland Premier Wayne Goss that ‘politicians thought they were pretty powerful but - in our system – it was the police who had all the power’. Goss, a former-lawyer, looked blankly at me. He just didn’t understand what I was on about. As a first-time MP I had just told him that I was about to be charged by police with a number of criminal charges which I have always maintained were false, and the jury who acquitted me later seemed to agree. But I was a mere backbencher in his government and he had a huge majority so why should he care? It seemed to me he didn’t.

When Goss lost office in the next election by just one electorate – the ALP now understands that was my seat of Mount Ommaney which I had lost by a handful of votes after the coppers had smeared me beautifully in the media for fifteen months as only they can do – he may have better understood what I had told him.

The Queensland police – whose campaign slogan is the ironical ‘with honour we serve’ – changed the outcome of the 1995 Queensland election in favour of a Borbidge-led government which – happily for some – let convicted and disgraced police commissioner and junior Rat Pack member Terry Lewis out of gaol four years early. But who’s counting?

This week we have seen more of the handiwork of the Queensland coppers with the release of heavily censored CCTV footage of the bashing of handcuffed prisoners in the custody of that outstanding example of one of Queensland’s ‘finest’, former-senior constable Benjamin Thomas Price, who is shown bashing a tourist and a barmaid at the Airlie Beach police station in the state’s north.

The ex-policeman, 34, was sentenced to 27 months' jail on 11 October 2010 after pleading guilty to four counts of assault. Steele, a plasterer from NSW, suffered a broken nose, black eyes, a head wound, hearing problems, memory loss and lack of sensation in his arms and hands after his arrest in the popular Whitsundays tourist town. He told the court he was trying to break-up a fight between two mates when he was capsicum sprayed by police. It is alleged Price led the handcuffed Steele to a police car before saying "watch your head" and smashing his face into the vehicle, knocking him unconscious.

Price allegedly dragged Steele from the car outside Airlie Beach watch-house, repeatedly punched him and "kicked him with his boots" in the face, breaking his nose.

CCTV video footage from the police station shows a dazed, heavily bleeding Steele being dragged into an alley beside the watch-house. It shows the handcuffed man being punched in the head before having a fire hose jammed into his mouth, where it was held for up to 90 seconds as another officer watches.

Steele screams and groans in agony and blood can be seen sheeting down the concrete path as the policeman stands on the handcuffs, pressing his hand into the back of the man's neck, forcing his head into his lap in a brutal spine lock.

"I felt like I was going to drown," Steele told the court. "He jammed the hose into my mouth. I couldn't breathe. I was coughing and spluttering blood. It was pretty scary. It went on for a long time. I called him a pussy. He knocked me about. I was pretty dazed, I'd had a boot to my face, my nose was broken. I was choking on my own blood, I felt like I was drowning."

The vision shows other police officers standing by as Price stuffs a fire hose into his victim's mouth, nearly drowning him. The CCTV footage also shows Price hitting slightly-built barmaid Renee Tom, 21, slamming her to the floor inside the watch-house in January 2008 and pulling her to her feet by her hair.

As a former police officer who saw service as an operational trainer and academy law lecturer, I know full well that any one of the other police who observed Price’s actions could have stopped Price and even arrested him on the spot for each of his savage bashings. So what happened? Only one of the police shown in the censored footage with their faces blurred did something; it was left to courageous female trainee constable Bree Sonter to do the right thing and to complain about the incidents.

Queensland police deputy commissioner Ian Stewart told reporters on 11 October 2010 that five other officers had resigned and three more were facing potential disciplinary actions over the incidents. All of the other officers who did nothing were complicit in the offences in my opinion.

It was my honour to be sworn in under Commissioner Ray Whitrod in 1976 - Whitrod was a real police commissioner. I immediately saw service in North Queensland and soon discovered that police bashings of Aboriginal and homosexual citizens were everyday sport for far too many Queensland police. It’s easy to say, but individual police have the power to control the behaviour of their peers by stepping in and stopping offences like those committed by Price. I know, I was bashed several times in the Townsville watch-house and once out on the street by my police colleagues for intervening to stop other officers from assaulting prisoners.

As I said at the outset, each individual police officer has the power to arrest anyone, the premier, the prime minister, or another officer. With such power comes enormous responsibility.

That’s the job and that is what is required. Don’t like it? Coppers who aren’t up to it should get out of the kitchen.

Prisoners were being bashed in the custody of Queensland police in the 1970s and we now have incontrovertible evidence they are still being bashed, even under the watchful eye of CCTV. Too many police thugs are protected by their peers and deaths in police custody will continue to occur while other officers fail to serve with real honour.

Is it all bad? As someone who will bleed a little bit blue until the day I die, I like to listen to the police radio on the scanner when I am writing, or driving around. While the Queensland police are badly led by their most senior officers whom I wouldn’t feed, I can report that many of the uniformed officers who undertake first-response operational duties do an excellent job. It is with pride that I can report hearing more often than not in the voices of police on the scanner their obvious humanity and concern for children, young people, battered women, the homeless and the elderly, and I commonly hear police going to great lengths to ensure that everything possible is done for people who need police assistance.

No, it’s not all bad.

If there is a hero in this sad story it is Constable Bree Sonter who did serve Queenslanders with honour.

I call on the Queensland Government to appropriately honour this young woman with the highest police award.

Author: Peter Pyke, 0427 388 598, pykie@republicandemocrats.org.au

Report on police bash-artist 'ignored' by police HQ

POLICE have been accused of ignoring a damning report detailing the use of excessive force against an offender by former Whitsundays officer Benjamin Price. Footage of Price bashing offenders while Queensland Police officers looked on has gone global on YouTube after he was sentenced on Monday to 27 months' jail for assaults on handcuffed tourists.

The former acting officer-in-charge of Whitsundays police station, Russell Pike, claims that an "injury in custody" report involving an assault by Price – then a senior constable – against Sydney tourist Renee Toms at Airlie Beach watchhouse in January 2008 was lodged with police. "Immediately after that incident with Renee Toms in the watchhouse, both those female officers (who saw it) insisted it was an injury in custody," he said.

Mr Pike said that as a result, the relevant duty officer had been notified and had arranged for a detective to come to the station immediately. "It was an official report that requested an urgent investigation into the matter," Mr Pike said.

He said Ms Toms spoke to police before the injury in custody report was filed to the Mackay District Office. He said Ms Toms had suffered a split chin in the assault.

But a police spokesman yesterday denied the report was received. Assistant Commissioner Peter Martin, from the Ethical Standards Command, yesterday told reporters police had no knowledge of a complaint made by an officer in January 2008. In a response to a later detailed inquiry by The Courier-Mail as to whether police had received a report of an injury in custody, a spokesman said no such report had been received.

Senior police yesterday described the fallout from the case, dubbed "Queensland's Rodney King" as a nightmare.

The QPS yesterday faced allegations it had failed to take action against officers who witnessed the attacks and failed to report them and also ignored at least one other report into Price's violent behaviour.

Mr Martin said three Queensland police officers present when footage was taken of Price brutally bashing offenders were under investigation. The three officers are still working for the QPS. Mr Martin said it would be unlikely they would be charged. Mr Martin applauded first-year trainee constable Bree Sonter, who came forward in May 2008 after video footage captured Price punching and kneeing handcuffed man Timothy Steele.

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Cops present at bashings of tourists by fellow cop still working

They would be home free if not for the publicity

THREE police officers present when horrific footage was taken of an Airlie Beach cop brutally bashing offenders are still working in the force. The damning footage from the Whitsundays watch-house which shows officer Benjamin Price – who has since been jailed – attacking a civilian while his colleagues watched on.

Assistant Commissioner Peter Martin from the Ethical Standards Command addressed media at a press conference in Brisbane today. "There are currently at least three officers that we are looking at with respect to disciplinary matters and they are current officers," he said. "There are people depicted in the vision that are still members of the service that are subject of those investigations."

Mr Martin would not specify which officers are still members of the force and under investigation. He said the three officers being investigated for internal disciplinary matters had their faces blurred in the video footage because they matters remained "unresolved and not finalised".

Mr Martin said it would be unlikely the officers would be charged with criminal offences. [Why are they not charged with being accessories during and after the fact?]

Five officers including a sergeant, senior-constable and three constables have since resigned from the police service.

The footage was uploaded on to the Queensland Police YouTube page on Tuesday, just one day after officer Price was sentenced to 27 months jail for his assaults on handcuffed tourists.

Three complaints were made about Price including one by a victim in January 2008, then another complaint by first-year trainee constable Bree Sonter in May of the same year. The third complaint was from a victim also made in May 2008.

Mr Martin commended Constable Sonter for her actions said she was "heroic" in coming forward and making a complaint against Price.

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Taxpayers fund payouts to former cop's bashing victims

ROGUE ex-cop Benjamin Thomas Price has cost taxpayers more than $1 million in secret payouts to three bashed tourist victims in a case of police brutality branded by senior officers as "one of the worst ever seen".

Former Senior Constable Price, 33, of Airlie Beach police station, yesterday pleaded guilty to three counts of assault occasioning bodily harm and one count of common assault against three victims in 2007 and 2008.

Documents obtained by The Courier-Mail reveal three victims made civil damages claims for at least six-figure compensation payouts against the Queensland Police Service – because the ex-cop is bankrupt.

His admission of guilt comes after female police whistleblower Constable Bree Sonter, yesterday hailed as a hero, broke ranks and filed a complaint against her former patrol partner two years ago.

Price was accused of punching and kneeing a handcuffed Timothy Steele before jamming a fire hose in his mouth, nearly drowning his victim on May 25, 2008. Shocking video footage from inside the Airlie Beach police station shows Price punching and kneeing a bleeding, handcuffed Timothy Steele.

In another incident, it was alleged petite barmaid Renee Toms, also handcuffed, was flung about by the hair by Price before being slammed into a desk and the floor inside the watchhouse.

His third victim, merchant banker Nicholas Le Fevre, of Sydney, claims he was king-hit and repeatedly punched in the head by Price after arguing with him. Yesterday he confirmed he was the latest to take a confidential out-of-court settlement.

Documents show Steele, a plasterer of NSW, filed a damages claim in Brisbane Supreme Court for $725,000 and is known to have signed off on a confidential agreement.

Barmaid Renee Toms, also of Sydney, yesterday confirmed her case was yet to be settled and was due to go to mediation with a compensation figure yet to be decided.

Price yesterday showed no emotion as he changed his plea to guilty and outside court refused to respond to questions about any formal apology to his victims.

But, in extraordinary claims on his Facebook page, the father-of-two protested his innocence in his latest entry. He said: "I want you to all understand that I have been forced into a corner by the QPS and the dogs that turned against me." He revealed he cut a deal with the DPP to change his plea to guilty for a reduced three-year sentence to spend a maximum 12 months in prison.

Deputy Commissioner Ian Stewart, in response to Price's guilty plea yesterday, said it was "one of the most difficult cases we've had to deal with". "We apologise to the community for this breach of trust," he said. "Certainly the behaviour is that of the worst I've seen for one single officer."

Asked by The Courier-Mail why the officers who witnessed the brutality but remained silent had not been punished, he replied they "may have received managerial guidance". [PATHETIC!!!!]

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Footage shows Qld. cop bashing handcuffed tourists



POLICE have posted disturbing video footage of a Queensland officer's thuggish assaults on alleged offenders at Airlie Beach police station, a day after he was sentenced to jail over the incidents.

The first video shows the then Senior Constable Benjamin Price throwing a slightly built, handcuffed woman to the ground then pulling her up by the hair.

Another officer walks around him while the assault is going on, and does not appear to say anything - although there is no sound in the videos.

In the second, Price is out of screen for part of the video before he drags a handcuffed offender up to a wall.

There is blood over the man’s nose and mouth and another officer then hands Price a fire hose, which he shoves in the victim’s face. The assault goes on for several minutes and is difficult to watch.

Police said the videos had been made publicly available online in recognition of the public interest in the matter. Acting Commissioner Ian Stewart said there was no place for such conduct in the Queensland Police Service.

Price was yesterday sentenced in the Townsville District Court to 27 months jail after pleading guilty to four counts of serious assault. He will be eligible for parole after nine months, in July 2011.

In sentencing, Judge Stuart Durward condemned his actions as “gratuitously violent, callous and contemptible”. “Your actions were grossly excessive. You abused your authority.”

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Cop protects violent thug

He was either grossly negligent or "bought". Given the record of the Qld. wallopers both are quite likely

An arrest warrant has been issued for a tow company worker and a police officer has been disciplined after an alleged assault on a businessman in a Browns Plains carpark.

The development is the latest in a string of assault claims to emerge against employees of We Tow U and associated companies. The company has come under fire in the past week for carrying out allegedly predatory practices in shopping car parks.

Police are seeking a We Tow U spotter after the businessman, 54, claimed he was accosted while taking video at Grand Plaza carpark on March 26.

Footage obtained by The Courier-Mail shows the spotter – who was employed to watch patrons as they left the premises – grabbing the businessman's camera and saying: "I'm going to smash you."

The businessman then alleged the heavily-tattooed spotter crushed his hand and told him: "You better piss off out of here, I'm going to fix you up." "He was extremely agitated, like a terrier on speed," the businessman said.

At the time he was recording an apparent lack of towing signage at the car parking space from which his daughter's car was towed the previous day. The police officer who originally took his complaint allegedly told him: "Maybe he wanted to say hello."

The police officer has since been placed under supervision. Police formally apologised to the businessman last month and reopened the case.

A We Tow U insider said employees had left the company because of disillusionment with allegedly predatory tow-away practices.

More HERE

Booze to flow on at police stations

Police will continue to drink in stations as the service refuses to go “dry” despite sweeping reforms aimed at stamping out bad behaviour. Social clubs will still be allowed to serve alcohol at their bars inside police stations with the QPS having no plans to adopt drink bans already in place in most workplaces - despite warnings in its own policy documents that people don’t like police drinking in uniform.

Eleven station social clubs, including one at the police academy in Oxley, have liquor licences or liquor permits. While the police policy says barbecues involving members of the community are to be encouraged, drinking on duty is banned.

The refusal to go dry comes despite a police officer being disciplined for drinking alcohol with “questionable” civilians at a police station until 4.3Oam. On November 14 last year, Senior Constable Jefiirey Frazer took a group of acquaintances back to Caloundra police station, after a social function, the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal was told. He had intended to collect his car and alcohol and return home but once there they decided to stay and drink in the station’s social club area.


The report above appeared in the Brisbane "Sunday Mail" on 3 October 2010

Brisbane cop who bashed handcuffed prisoners keeps his job

A POLICE officer who bashed handcuffed prisoners at a Brisbane station will be allowed to keep his job.

The Queensland Civil Administrative Tribunal has suspended the dismissal of Constable Patrick Gardiner for three years despite finding three misconduct charges against him were substantiated.

The Crime and Misconduct Commission had appealed to the tribunal after an internal police investigation dismissed two of the three charges against him, and imposed no penalty for the third.

The charges related to 11 excessive-force incidents in 2004 where Constable Gardiner was accused of slapping, throwing, kicking and punching six offenders in the Brisbane City Beat office.

On one occasion in September 2004, Constable Gardiner removed a prisoner's handcuffs and enticed him into a fight.

In the QCAT ruling, Judge Fleur Kingham found Constable Gardiner was relatively inexperienced at the time of the assaults. "It is regrettably true that police are sometimes abused and obstructed when lawfully exercising their powers," the judgment said. "Undoubtedly this occurs more frequently for those officers working at a City Beat station."

Justice Kingham said Constable Gardiner faced unacceptable behaviour from some of the complainants who were affected by alcohol, disrespectful, insulting or abusive or inciting others to "take on" the police. "It must be acknowledged that sustained exposure to such conduct has a cumulative effect."

Since being removed from the City Beat station and sent to a "more sedate suburban station" Constable Gardiner's conduct had been without reproach, said the judgment. "A consulting psychologist, who assessed and counselled Constable Gardiner in 2005, thought that move was vital for him to de-stress and review his policing practices," the judgment said.

Based on his clean record since the 2004 assaults, Justice Kingham ruled a recommendation to dismiss him from the police service should be suspended for three years.

"By the end of the operational period, it will be almost nine years since the conduct occurred; a very considerable period during which he will have had to serve at risk of bearing severe consequences for his conduct," the judgment said.

The findings will be recorded in Constable Gardiner's disciplinary history. A CMC spokeswoman said the commission respected QCAT's decision.

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Tribunal blasts penalty for Sunshine Coast police officer's boozy party as 'inadequate'

Cops going easy on cops, as usual

THE Queensland Police Service has been reprimanded by an independent judiciary after imposing an "inadequate" penalty on a Sunshine Coast police officer who had a party with "questionable" people at a police station.

The incident was one of four cases involving police referred to the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal by the Crime and Misconduct Commission in the past year.

Senior Constable Jeffrey Frazer admitted he and several civilians went to a social function and then returned to Caloundra Police Station with alcohol on November 14, 2009 – compromising public safety and the station's security, according to QCAT documents.

The tribunal said Sen-Constable Frazer and others "consumed alcohol in the social club area of the police station until about 4.30 in the morning". "Of concern, some of these people had questionable backgrounds and the security of the police station was compromised," the QCAT documents said.

The officer's salary was cut for six months, but the CMC referred the penalty to the tribunal because of its concerns the penalty was inadequate.

The documents revealed the CMC contended the penalty "did not properly reflect the purpose of the disciplinary proceedings by not protecting the public, upholding ethical standards in the Queensland Police Service, and promoting and maintaining confidence in the Queensland Police Service". QCAT then doubled the size of the salary cut and made it effective for 12 months.

But Police Commissioner Bob Atkinson said the original sanction was "appropriate". "Matters will continue to be carefully considered based on the circumstances and penalties permitted under the QPS disciplinary process," he said.

The CMC, which argued the penalty was "disproportionate to Sen Constable Frazer's admitted improper conduct", denied it had anything to do with a corruption inquiry.

"It is not appropriate to directly link this individual case to the final phase of the CMC's investigation into allegations of police misconduct on the Gold Coast – namely this week's public hearing exploring systemic organisational issues identified by Operation Tesco," a spokeswoman said.

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CMC raid on Gold Coast cop's home allegedly finds drugs

In the latest blow for Police Commissioner Bob Atkinson, a Gold Coast officer has been stood down following a Crime and Misconduct Commission raid on his home.

The CMC has confirmed the raid on the constable's house at Burleigh Waters on Wednesday night, in which a quantity of drugs was allegedly found.

A CMC spokeswoman said the raid was not linked to Operation Tesco - the investigation mounted by the commission into alleged police misconduct on the Gold Coast.

Three officers have been stood down as a result of the operation and at least one is facing criminal charges.

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Six Gold Coast police officers on steroids 'for no reason'

"Roid rage" behind some police violence?

Six Gold Coast police were found to be using anabolic steroids for no medical reason, the Crime and Misconduct Commission inquiry has been told. The Gold Coast's top cop, Superintendent Jim Keogh, on Tuesday told the Operation Tesco inquiry he suspected some younger officers were using steroids after complaints about excessive use of force during arrests.

Today, counsel assisting the inquiry, John Allen, questioned Queensland Police Services human resources director Patricia Jones about steroid use among police. He told the inquiry that six officers, most working in Surfers Paradise, were prescribed anabolic steroids by one doctor despite having no health problems.

Mr Allen said the officers wanted the steroids to counter tiredness, lethargy or because they 'were just wanting to be bigger'. The steroids would have been illegal if they were not given on prescription, Mr Allen said.

He said a steroid expert interviewed by the CMC said there was a tendency for non-medical users to take high doses and to sometimes mix them with black market steroids or illicit drugs, and some users could become angry and aggressive. Mr Allen suggested it might be 'of concern' that armed police might be using steroids.

Ms Jones said posters were placed in all police stations warning officers about the use of medication. She said officers suspected of being unfit for duty could be ordered to see an independent doctor.

Ms Jones said random drug testing was not carried out by the QPS but since 2005, 13,400 officers and recruits undergone 'reasonable suspicion' tests for drugs and alcohol. Only one positive drug test and four positive alcohol results had been returned, she said.

Ms Jones said random drug testing was estimated to cost about $500,000 a year and there were no plans to introduce it. "For $500,000, I could possibly employ four to five more police officers (so) the question becomes, 'what's the cost benefit?', she said.

Ms Jones said concerns about police abusing medication had to be balanced against privacy issues.

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Officer-in-charge at Surfers Paradise supports culture of freebies

SURFERS Paradise's top cop saw nothing wrong with his officers receiving free drinks at nightclubs and half-price McDonald's meals. But he also called for police to be rotated through Surfers in six-month stints, Kings Cross-style, to reduce the chances of them falling victim to the party precinct's temptations.

The Crime and Misconduct Commission has raised serious conflict-of-interest concerns about police who provided "preferential treatment" to nightclubs in return for free hospitality. But the officer-in-charge of the Surfers Paradise station, Senior-Sergeant Martin Dimond, said freebies were acceptable providing police were not being compromised.

The first witness to give evidence at the CMC's Operation Tesco public hearings, Sen-Sgt Dimond was quizzed about public perceptions towards police receiving gifts and benefits. He said police had long received half-price McDonald's and other discounted meals and "the community are not concerned about it".

Sen-Sgt Dimond said he believed it was acceptable for police to receive free drinks at nightclubs as long as they were not providing favours, or getting greater benefits than the general public. He said some clubs liked to have off-duty police in their establishments to deter bikies. "I'm not aware of any public concern about that (off-duty officers receiving drinks)," Sen-Sgt Dimond told the inquiry.

However, he said senior police had ordered a ban on officers receiving nightclub hospitality in the wake of the CMC's Operation Tesco probe.

Sen-Sgt Dimond blamed some police misconduct on the fact that Surfers Paradise was a "stressful" place to work. He said Surfers police had to regularly deal with violent offenders and were often subjected to complaints. "In some situations, they (also) go home to a stressful environment and that's where problems (with misconduct) arise because there's no opportunity for them to get a break from the stress they're dealing with," he said.

Sen-Sgt Dimond said police in Sydney's Kings Cross were rotated in six-month stints and it "works very well". "They're not exposed continuously, over a number of years, to the high levels of stress," he said.

Sen-Sgt Dimond also said police numbers in Surfers Paradise needed to be doubled on Friday and Saturday nights. He said 126 police were allocated to Surfers, but an average of only 85 were available for duty, due to officers being on leave or seconded to other areas."

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Police should face random drug and alcohol tests, officer tells watchdog

A Senior Gold Coast policeman has called for the introduction of random drug testing for officers and increased alcohol testing. Surfers Paradise police inspector Neil Haslam made the call today at a Crime and Misconduct Commission hearing which has heard evidence of Coast police taking and dealing drugs, drinking on duty and accepting free drinks at nightclubs.

Insp Haslam said random drug testing 'could assist' improve police behaviour and believed the frequency of random alcohol testing needed to be increased. But he rejected a suggestion from the counsel assisting the inquiry, John Allen, that police be drug-tested on every shift. "I'd say (that would be) completely impractical," he said. "Police officers are supposed to be performing their duty in the main, aren't the?. We need to get them out and about."

Insp Halman also said 'bad apples' need to be identified and weeded out while still at the police academy.

The hearing was told a former stripper and drug user had applied to join the Queensland Police Service and that one Gold Coast officer facing criminal charges had been disciplined while training at the academy.

Police Commissioner Bob Atkinson has already announced plans to toughen up recruiting standards.

Insp Haslman told the Operation Tesco hearing he believed there needed to be more rigorous vetting of police recruits. Insp Haslam said improved security checks and a 'zero tolerance ... of integrity failures' were needed to lift recruiting standards.

CMC chairman Martin Moynihan commented that 'one bad apple can have a very serious adverse affect' on the QPS.

Ins Haslam replied: "One bad apple has had a significent affect on the Gold Coast district and that's why we're here today."

Mr Moynihan later said there appeared to be 'more than two or three bad apples' among Gold Coast police.

Insp Haslam: "Mr Chairman, I'm not sure where the bad apples may be or who the bad apples may be with regard to my particular area of responsibility, but there may well be others."

The CMC has said it plans to lay charges against one current and one former officer and eight civilians. Disciplinary action against six officers is also expected to be recommended.

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Gold Coast police face drugs charges

SERIOUS charges are set to be laid against 10 people, including current and former police, after allegations of Gold Coast police using drugs, associating with criminals and turning a blind eye to crimes including nightclub drug rapes. Six police are also facing disciplinary action as a result of the Crime and Misconduct Commission's Operation Tesco probe into Gold Coast police misconduct.

The first day of Operation Tesco's public hearings has heard explosive evidence of Coast police stroking the Glitter Strip's dark underbelly. In his opening address, counsel assisting the inquiry, John Allen, said Operation Tesco was sparked after eyewitness accounts of Gold Coast police taking drugs and being paid bribes by criminals for tip-offs.

Mr Allen said while the allegations were not proven, they were a 'significant trigger' for Tesco which had uncovered 'significant evidence' of police having improper associations with criminals and providing them with confidential information.

The inquiry was told drugs including 30 ecstasy pills and two bags of amphetamine were found during a raid in January this year on a Brisbane apartment where a Gold Coast police officer codenamed G7, and associates including a suspected drug supplier, were staying.

During secret hearings, officer G7 admitted to taking ecstasy, using and supply 'black market' steroids and receiving $100 drink cards at Surfers Paradise nightclubs and improperly processing bouncer licence applications. Officer G7 had also admitted to using the police computer to do criminal checks on girlfriends.

Another officer, D1, admitted to associating with drug dealers and said the receipt of free drinks was 'common knowledge' among senior police. He said Gold Coast police also received free McDonald's meals and tickets to Gold Coast Titans games.

The hearing was also told that the use of 'blue light taxis' to ferry off-duty officers, friends and family to and from nightclubs and social functions was a longstanding and accepted practice among Gold Coast police.

Mr Allen said there were reports some police whistleblowers were 'harassed, intimidated, victimised and humiliated' for co-operating with the inquiry.

He said the CMC expected to lay charges against one current and one former officer and recommend disciplinary action against a further six officers. "Criminal charges are also expected to be laid against eight civilians, most of those being in connection with serious drug offences," he said.

The hearing is set to run for five days and will continue this afternoon with the first police witnesses

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Surfers Paradise police inspector caught asleep on job

Another black mark for the Gold Coast wallopers. They seem to have no standards at all. And the police hierarchy are no better -- giving the slumbering cop no more than a slap on the wrist

A SENIOR Gold Coast police inspector has been busted for falling asleep on the job at one of Queensland's busiest stations. The inspector was on duty at the Surfers Paradise police station in May when he was spotted dozing in a room at the rear of the station.

At least one officer complained to management and the incident was subsequently investigated by the state's Ethical Standards Command. A police spokesman yesterday confirmed the officer had been disciplined and "reassigned" to other duties, but not demoted.

The embarrassing incident comes just days ahead of a Crime and Misconduct Commission Inquiry hearing into the behaviour of police officers on the Glitter Strip. Next week's CMC hearing, sparked by Operation Tesco, will examine alleged misconduct by Gold Coast officers, including drug use, accepting drinks at nightclubs and associating with known criminals.

A Surfers Paradise police officer told The Courier-Mail the dozing inspector had been witnessed by up to 30 other officers and that it was not the first time an officer had fallen asleep on the job. "I am not sure which is worse: the commissioned officer who was asleep or the others who allowed it to happen," he said. "What sort of example is this setting to junior officers if their superiors are sleeping on the job?"

The incident happened on a weekend night shift, a traditionally busy period.

The officer, who asked not to be named, said many officers simply turned a blind eye to unprofessional behaviour. "The culture of protecting wrongdoers is alive and well," he said.

A police spokesman said the incident was investigated and appropriate action was taken. "The officer concerned received managerial guidance," he said. "He remains in an operational role within the South Eastern Police Region."

Three serving, or former, Gold Coast officers have been stood down as part of the Tesco probe and at least one is facing criminal charges. Dozens of Gold Coast police have appeared at the CMC's secret "star chamber" hearings, forced to give evidence against allegedly crooked colleagues under threat of being jailed for contempt.

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Gold Coast cop caught in drug bust

The cloud over Gold Coast police has darkened, after the suspension of a constable following a drug raid by the Crime and Misconduct Commission. Officers with the CMC raided the Burleigh Waters home of the 38-year-old constable on Wednesday night, allegedly seizing marijuana.

A CMC spokeswoman said the investigation was not related to the wider Gold Coast operation being conducted by the commission. Operation Tesco is investigating allegations of inappropriate police associations with criminals, the acceptance of gifts and "gratuities", the misuse of confidential information and drug use.

Two police stations have been raided in the course of Operation Tesco and three officers suspended, including a female constable who has since quit the QPS. At least 50 other police have been interviewed by the CMC during the investigation and public hearings will be held by the CMC in Brisbane later this month.

Queensland police are also believed to be investigating allegations that an officer seconded to the Australian Federal Police exposed himself to a woman at Tugun on Monday. The victim noted the alleged offender's number plate, which reportedly corresponded to that of an officer.

A QPS spokesman confirmed an investigation was in progress but said it would be "inappropriate to comment further given the sensitive stage of the matter".

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Queensland Police under siege as complaints skyrocket

The rot starts at the top with a culture of coverup at all costs. Top cop Atkinson needs to be removed -- and his Deputy too

COMPLAINTS against police are up by almost a quarter in the past year with an average of eight officers a day being accused of offences ranging from sexual misconduct to assault. In the 12 months to June 30, 3011 complaints were received by the Ethical Standards Command compared with 2443 last year.

More than one in four of those complaints related to police behaviour that was allegedly "disgraceful, improper or unbecoming of an officer", while more than 600 complaints accused police of assault. There were more than 20 complaints of sexual misconduct, 60 of misappropriation or theft and more than 10 traffic offence matters.

About one in four complaints were made by police themselves against fellow officers, with the remainder lodged by members of the public or referred to police by the Crime and Misconduct Commission.

A Queensland Police Service spokeswoman said "extensive media coverage" of the QPS may have contributed to the higher levels of complaints. "The QPS takes all complaints seriously and is constantly monitoring the number and nature of complaints received," she said. "The service is also continuing to review and examine all aspects of the increase in reported complaints to identify the primary contributing factors."

Complaints referred by police to the CMC as well as those made directly to the anti-corruption body jumped 23 per cent to 2529 in 2009-10. "Of those complaints against police, the CMC assessed 2518 matters, referring 2280 to the QPS to deal with subject to monitoring by the CMC," said a commission spokeswoman.

The mountain of alleged offences has created a huge backlog of work for the police Ethical Standards Command with 1145 investigations open on March 31. Of those, 14 were more than two years old and another 74 more than 12 months old.

State Opposition Leader John-Paul Langbroek said the figures showed why the police discipline process needed to be overhauled. "Complaints against police shouldn't be taking more than a year to be resolved and police shouldn't be off-duty for months on end waiting for an investigation to be finalised," Mr Langbroek said. "If action is necessary it should be taken and taken quickly."

Police Minister Neil Roberts said only 3.6 per cent of complaints made in 2009 were substantiated. "Police interact with members of the public on a daily basis and it's important to remember that the majority of these interactions occur in a very emotive environment."

Queensland Police Union president Ian Leavers said he had discussed ways to streamline the police complaints process with QPS senior management and the CMC but as yet no reforms had been undertaken.

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Watchdog says top cop covered up unwarranted violence by police

Is the culture of corruption becoming a little bit unglued at last?

QUEENSLAND'S crime watchdog has launched a legal challenge against a top cop who'll decide the fate of police who investigated the Palm Island death in custody. The Crime and Misconduct Commission (CMC) today told AAP it had filed legal action against Deputy Police Commissioner Kathy Rynders.

The challenge relates to Ms Rynders' handling of allegations that a senior officer seriously injured a 15-year-old suspect during an arrest in May 2007, The Australian newspaper said.

It said the boy needed hospital care for a ruptured spleen following his arrest. But Ms Rynders, in a ruling sent to the CMC, found allegations the injury was caused by an arresting officer were unsubstantiated, the paper said.

The CMC has filed an application for Queensland's Civil and Administrative Tribunal to review Ms Rynders' decision not to sack the officer.

Just last month, Ms Rynders was given the job of deciding how to discipline six police involved in flawed investigations into Cameron Doomadgee's 2004 death at the Palm Island watchhouse. Mr Doomadgee suffered broken ribs, a ruptured spleen and a liver almost split in two when he died at the police station.

Arresting officer Chris Hurley was ultimately acquitted over his death.

Ms Rynders was given the job of disciplining the six after a court ruled someone other than Police Commissioner Bob Atkinson should do it, because he could be seen as biased.

The court ruling followed a damning CMC report, released in June. It found serious flaws in the initial investigation - conducted by four officers who fraternised with Mr Doomadgee's arresting officer - and errors in a subsequent internal review by two senior officers.

At the time, CMC chairman Martin Moynihan also accused Mr Atkinson of presiding of a culture of self-protection within the police service.

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