Deploying police resources

Tabled Report 4: 2023–24

Tabled date

2023-11-30

Report year

2023-24

Community welfare Justice and public order Regions

Entities audited

Not identified in the published HTML audit scope.

Recommendations

1. QAO's text Addressed to: the Queensland Police Service (QPS)

   develops a robust model for forecasting demand across the service that

   • builds evidence-based understanding of demand across the QPS regions, commands, and specialist operations, including of officer time spent on proactive policing and non-frontline administrative work
   • uses factors and issues that are driving demand, such as demographics, socio-economic elements, trends in offence types and rates, and lessons learnt from major events to inform models that predict demand
   • factors in other demand-related requirements that may not be supported by data, such as meeting community expectations

2. QAO's text Addressed to: the Queensland Police Service (QPS)

   improves its strategic workforce planning, including

   • establishing a workforce growth target using evidence-based analysis of future demand for service
   • assessing the workforce skills needed to meet current and future demand, identifying any gaps
   • reviewing tasks that need to be done by police officers and those than can be done by staff members
   • periodically reviewing the mandatory retirement age requirements
   • optimising the mix of police officers, and staff members, protective security officers, police liaison officers, and retiring police officers who wish to continue working
   • assessing how current and emerging technology can improve service delivery and workforce demand
   • identifying future needs and planning for equipment and fit-for-purpose building infrastructure.

3. QAO's text Addressed to: the Queensland Police Service (QPS)

   improves its response to demand for service by

   • reviewing its service delivery model to identify and address challenges and improve its ability to meet demand
   • reviewing how it handles calls from sources other than 000 to identify any process improvements that will reduce the despatch time for Code 1 and 2 calls
   • regularly educating the public on the appropriate use of 000 and Policelink in reporting incidents
   • using performance information to gain insights into service delivery and support informed decision-making. This includes
     • evaluating and assessing the reasons why police do not attend some Code 1 to 3 calls
     • determining why some regions are not meeting targets for Code 1 and 2 (urgent) calls and deciding whether to establish regional targets

4. QAO's text Addressed to: the Queensland Police Service (QPS)

   improves the usefulness and transparency of its public performance reporting on responding to calls for service by

   • reviewing its internal controls over publicly reported performance information
   • reporting its performance on responding to Code 1 and 2 calls from all sources, not just 000 calls
   • clearly explaining which types of calls for services are included and not included in its performance reporting for Codes 1 and 2 in its service delivery statements

5. QAO's text Addressed to: continues to develop consistent rostering practices to improve how it deploys available resources across the state. This

   continues to develop consistent rostering practices to improve how it deploys available resources across the state. This should include

   • improving its rostering processes to align resources with demand
   • rostering and resourcing at the patrol group level (clusters of stations), rather than at the individual station level, to enable more flexible deployment of staff and resources
   • ensuring the availability of officers allocated to patrol groups and stations is enough to meet demand after considering time for leave and training
   • analysing patterns of overtime to inform workforce planning
   • ensuring all staff responsible for rostering are adequately trained in using the rostering system.

Authoritative report — Queensland Audit Office

Report PDF on QAO