Our Facebook page is now up and running - https://www.facebook.com/WillowValeNHW.
Friday, 30 November 2012
Wednesday, 28 November 2012
Posted: 27 Nov 2012 10:23 PM PST
A new FREE smartphone application has been developed to help Australian parents provide information to police in an attempt to locate their children if they go missing.The Australian Police Child ID App was adapted from the Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) Child ID App in the United States. This collaborative effort has seen the Australian Federal Police (AFP) create a tool that will help parents and guardians more easily collect and send important information about their child/children to authorities in the event of a disappearance or abduction.
While the vast majority of children who go missing are quickly returned safely, usually within 24 hours of going missing, the application can be used to quickly provide crucial information to police, assisting them to expedite their search.
The application also includes safety advice and checklists for parents on keeping children safe, information about what to do in the hours immediately after a child goes missing and provides quick and efficient access to emergency contact phone numbers.
Available at no cost for Android and iPhone users.
Anyone with information relating to a missing child should contact their local police or contact National Missing Persons Coordination Centre on 1800 000 634 or email missing@afp.gov.au.
Friday, 16 November 2012
| "Police Solve Serious Assaults within the previous 24 hours, Gold Coast police have solved a number of violent assaults on the Gold Coast. Yesterday afternoon, police charged two teenagers in relation to the serious assault of two security guards at a Palm Beach takeaway store. It is alleged that a disturbance occurred in the store in the early hours of November 11, 2012 which resulted in a security guard being knocked to the ground suffering severe head injuries. A 16-year-old and 17-year-old boy have each been charged with two counts of assault occasioning bodily harm and are due to face Southport Magistrates Court today. Police have also charged a 25-year-old man and a 30-year-old man with one count each of assault occasioning bodily harm, stealing, possession of a dangerous drug and possession of a drug utensil following the serious assault of a taxi driver at Coolangatta on the evening of November 11, 2012. It is alleged that the taxi driver transported two men to an address in Coolangatta prior to the attack which caused him serious injury. Such examples reiterate the commitment of police to keeping our local area safe for all who live and visit the Gold Coast." |
Police pursuit policy a matter of balance
There has been a lot of ongoing discussion about police pursuits in recent times, and I thought it might be useful to elaborate on my views on this matter.Police work is inherently a dangerous job, but our first priority must always be public safety.
Every day our officers must make snap second decisions about how to resolve potentially dangerous situations, and the single most dangerous thing they will do in their career is get behind the wheel of a car.
Sounds mundane, doesn’t it? But worldwide, more police and members of the public are killed ‘in police action’ due to car crashes than any other cause.
A recent study by Australian Institute of Criminology shows that more than half of all people killed in Australia in an interaction with police die as a result of police pursuits. And that is not just offenders. More than one third of those are the general public.
While I understand the frustration experienced by officers who see offenders flauting the road rules, the risks associated with pursuing them for minor traffic offences are simply too great. It is worth noting that the Queensland Police Union of Employees supported the implementation of the policy. I question the timing and nature of the comments now being made by spokesmen for the union in the lead up to union elections. This issue is too important to be used for political purposes.
You don’t have to look far into the past to see the tragic consequences for innocent bystanders in Queensland.
I have personally had to tell a father that his teenager died as a result of a police pursuit. I never want another one of our officers to have to go through that awful task.
The reality of our pursuit policy is that our officers can pursue if there is a significant public risk in letting the offenders go. This is rarely the case.
Overwhelmingly, these evade police incidents are young, inexperienced drivers who are either drunk, affected by drugs, or both. They have little regard for their own safety, and even less care for the safety of other road users. According to the AIC, nearly 90 percent of offenders who died in pursuit crashes are impaired.
We have to be the cool, responsible head in these situations, and understand that by pursuing these people, we are dramatically increasing the risk to you, to our officers, and to the offenders. Our first priority is always to public safety, and it must always be that way.
The good news is that we are getting better at catching these offenders. Increasingly, we are charging people after the event with evade police after the event, through following up on investigations. Take the example highlighted in the Courier Mail this morning. An 18-year-old Waterford West man was arrested one week after the incident, and charged with:
- 8x stealing
- 1x fail to stop motor vehicle
- 6x armed robbery
- 2x dangerous operation of motor vehicle
- 1x unlicenced driving
He was remanded in custody to appear again in Beenleigh Magistrates Court on 20 November.
The Government recently introduced mandatory minimum sentences for evade police, and the first offenders have already been sentenced under this legislation.
This is the start of the solution to this matter. By bringing these offenders to justice, and imposing heavy penalties, these acts of stupidity will be deterred in the safest way possible for everybody.
I will be reviewing the pursuit policy over the next 12 months, however we must always strive to get the balance right between public safety and deterrence.
Queensland Police Media · 200 Roma Street · Brisbane, Queensland 4000
Wednesday, 7 November 2012
Police continue to apply pressure to OMCGs with the latest statistics revealing more than 285 (Members;
Ex Members; Probationary; Prospect; Nominee and Associate OMCGs) have been charged on 705
offences between January 2012 and October 2012.
The most serious charges include:
. five Murder, Attempted Murder and Grievous Bodily Harm offences
. 113 Drug Trafficking, Supply, Produce and Possession
. 29 Possession / Use of a Dangerous Article
. 26 Motor Vehicle Steal / Unlawful Use and Possession
. 14 Unlawful Possession of Firearms
. 20 Assault Occasioning Bodily Harm / Assaults on Police
. 23 x Break and Enter, three Robbery and one x Deprivation of Liberty offence.
Increased scrutiny and intensive police activity targeting all OMCG crime will continue in an effort to create a strong disincentive for those who aspire to become OMCG members or support OMCG activities.
November 7, 2012 at 2:11 pm
Ex Members; Probationary; Prospect; Nominee and Associate OMCGs) have been charged on 705
offences between January 2012 and October 2012.
The most serious charges include:
. five Murder, Attempted Murder and Grievous Bodily Harm offences
. 113 Drug Trafficking, Supply, Produce and Possession
. 29 Possession / Use of a Dangerous Article
. 26 Motor Vehicle Steal / Unlawful Use and Possession
. 14 Unlawful Possession of Firearms
. 20 Assault Occasioning Bodily Harm / Assaults on Police
. 23 x Break and Enter, three Robbery and one x Deprivation of Liberty offence.
Increased scrutiny and intensive police activity targeting all OMCG crime will continue in an effort to create a strong disincentive for those who aspire to become OMCG members or support OMCG activities.
November 7, 2012 at 2:11 pm
Sunday, 4 November 2012
This week I started my new role as the 19th Commissioner of the Queensland Police Service, and I thought it was only appropriate that I use this opportunity to launch From the Commissioner’s Desk, my new blog.
I look forward to using this blog to talk about issues of significance to me personally, to the Queensland Police Service, and to the people of Queensland.
Even more importantly, I would like you to use this blog to let me know what matters to you, and provide me with feedback on my performance, the performance of the Queensland Police Service and how we can work together with you to make Queensland an even better place to live.
I take on my new role with three main priorities, with the first and most important being to stop crime.
This may be an aspirational goal, however I truly believe that working together, we can, as a society, make real and important reductions in crime rates. But we can only do it by building relationships between our police service and the community we serve. This is another priority for me as Commissioner.
Together, we can make Queensland safer. This is my third priority.
Peel’s Principles of Policing, written in 1829, are seen as the basis of policing theory in modern democratic society, and they are worth revisiting here:
Principle 1: The basic mission for which the police exist is to prevent crime and disorder.
Principle 2: The ability of the police to perform their duties is dependent upon the public approval of police actions.
Principle 3: Police must secure the willing co-operation of the public in voluntary observation of the law to be able to secure and maintain the respect of the public.
Principle 4: The degree of co-operation of the public that can be secured diminishes proportionately to the necessity of the use of physical force.
Principle 5: Police seek and preserve public favour not by catering to public opinion, but by constantly demonstrating absolute impartial service to the law.
Principle 6: Police use physical force to the extent necessary to secure observance of the law or to restore order only when the exercise of persuasion, advice, and warning is found to be insufficient.
Principle 7: Police, at all times, should maintain a relationship with the public that gives reality to the historic tradition that the police are the public and the public are the police; the police being only members of the public who are paid to give full-time attention to duties which are incumbent upon every citizen in the interests of community welfare and existence.
Principle 8: Police should always direct their action strictly towards their functions, and never appear to usurp the powers of the judiciary.
Principle 9: The test of police efficiency is the absence of crime and disorder, not the visible evidence of police action in dealing with it.
Every one of these principles are as relevant in a digital age as they were when they were written.
I am in the fortunate position of being the first Queensland Commissioner of Police, and, I believe, the first Commissioner in Australia, to be able to take advantage of the power of social media to build upon those principles, and you may be aware that I have been tweeting for some years under the account @DeputyStewart. That account has now been renamed @CoPStewart.
I welcome you to follow me on Twitter, and favourite this blog to get an insight into the day-to-day realities of being the Commissioner to a modern, professional police service of more than 10,500 sworn officers providing for the safety and security of more than three million Queenslanders spread across more than 1.72 million square kilometres. I look forward to working with you to make this wonderful State an even safer place to live, work and do business.
This article from the Commissioners Desk - November 2, 2012 at 11:02 am
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