Queensland’s top cop is set to be grilled about the sexism and misogyny among officers in dealing with domestic violence cases.
The inquiry before Judge Deborah Richards heard on Wednesday that multiple female officers had been sexually assaulted, harassed and bullied by senior male officers.
Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll admitted there’s a “deep fear” among her officers about the consequences of speaking out.
Victims are also losing confidence in the disciplinary process, she said, in which the only punishment for some perpetrators had been a private chat with a senior male colleague.
That punishment process, known as local management resolution (LMR), has also been used for officers who have had complaints made against them dealing with domestic violence cases.
Late on Wednesday afternoon, counsel assisting Ruth O’Gorman recounted a number allegations about police responding to domestic call outs.
In one case in March 2021, a senior constable insisted on escorting a victim outside and waiting for an Uber with her.
“While waiting he discussed his private life with her, told her he was a bad boy, and probably shouldn’t be a police officer, and told her that she was too good looking to have to deal with the sorts of breaches she was dealing with,” Ms O’Gorman said.
“She perhaps unsurprisingly felt like he was hitting on her.”
Two months later the same officer texted the woman saying they “should hook up soon”.
When she didn’t respond he sent a second text apologising and saying he had sent it to the wrong person.
Ms O’Gorman said that officer was disciplined using the controversial LMR method.
A senior constable was also punished using that method in 2016 after a probe found he was “deficient” in dealing with a domestic violence case.
He found there was “no DV” despite a respondent telling him that he’d threatened to punch a woman in the face and kick her children in the guts, and had refused to leave her home.
The officer was told to undertake online courses on recognising and responding to domestic violence.
Three years later, the same senior constable was reported by colleagues for his foul and violent comment about a female superior.
“He said in respect of the female officer in charge, ‘She’s nothing but a c***, and if she doesn’t give me a relieving role, I’m gunna punch her in the c***’,” Ms O’Gorman said.
She put to the police commissioner that the incident showed the officer’s “sexism and misogyny” may have contributed to his earlier failure to respond to the domestic violence incident.
But Ms Carroll insisted it was hard to tell if the officer’s failure was due a “disrespect of women”.
“It’s difficult for me to join those two (incidents),” she said.
The inquiry continues.
© AAP 2022
