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Shoplifting: New Police Training Module? · The Slippery Slope

• 0:00
  Ah yes, Queensland Police Service setting the standard
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  somewhere, somewhere below sea level.
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  Well, Jay Fallon here and thanks for listening.
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  So we've got another day. Another day and another police
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  officer has been charged, a senior Sergeant, this time a 45
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  year old senior Sergeant allegedly allegedly stealing
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  shop goods while off duty. Let's get into the story.
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  Bring it up here for you because you know, obviously nothing says
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  trusted public institution quite like your senior leadership.
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  Senior leadership getting caught nicking items from the local
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  store, from the Local 711. I, I don't know where it's from,
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  but anyway. And of course, the QPS, they
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  rushed out their favourite PR line in keeping with our
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  commitment, keeping with our commitment to low standards.
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  No, no. In keeping with their commitment
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  to high standards of behaviour, transparency and accountability.
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  Right, Because when I think high standards, I definitely think
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  senior Sergeant charged with shoplifting.
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  It's definitely right up there. If this is the standard, if this
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  is the high standard, well, I'd hate to see the low one.
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  Yeah. Yeah.
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  OK. So apparently now shoplifting is
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  a leadership development exercise, I'm assuming.
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  I don't know. Let's break it down.
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  Here's the story. A senior Sergeant, not a rookie,
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  not a probationary constable, but someone who's supposed to
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  model professionalism, allegedly walks into a store and decides
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  to help himself to the merchandise of duty.
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  Sure, because apparently this is something they put in all the
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  statements lately. It's all you know.
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  They're off duty at the time. He's caught drink driving, but
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  he's off duty. I mean, thank goodness for small
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  mercies, eh? Yeah.
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  So off duty. Sure.
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  Still a sworn officer. Sworn officer.
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  OK Are still bound by the code of conduct.
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  There's something, it might be something in the PPRA.
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  I'm not sure. Is there something about not not
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  stealing or is that just Criminal Code?
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  Who knows, you know? So anyway, but they're still
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  representing the badge. And yet here we are.
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  It's almost, it's almost impressive at this point.
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  QPS keep finding new ways to surprise us, not with
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  excellence, but with creative forms of misconduct.
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  This reminds me of that story. What was that one a couple of
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  years ago where the officer was stealing from the social club at
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  his station and then the other two numpties went and set up a
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  little sting and a little surveillance system and caught
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  him and then tried to charge him.
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  This is right up there with that.
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  Anyway, so let's look at the the QPS response.
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  They're very obviously always transparent about their lack of
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  standards. QPS proudly announces the
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  officer has been stood down and they're committed to informing
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  the public when serious allegations arise.
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  And translation of this is obviously we know you don't
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  trust us, so here's another reason not to trust us.
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  They're always, they always emphasise that the allegations
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  aren't proven. Thank goodness for that.
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  They're not proven because hey, once they are proven, we barely
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  hear a word about it, don't we? And fair enough, presumption of
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  innocence obviously is very important and it matters,
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  absolutely. Let's.
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  But let's be honest, Let's be honest, every time they release
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  one of these statements, public confidence doesn't just drop it
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  freefalls like a brick of a high rise, crashes, plummets.
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  Because people aren't stupid. As much as they want to treat us
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  like we're stupid, people aren't stupid.
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  We see the pattern, we see the culture, we see the revolving
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  door of misconduct announcements.
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  And everyone's asking, we're all asking the same question, you
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  know, and the same question for the sport for years now.
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  If, if this is what's happening off duty, then what's happening
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  on duty? That's what everyone's asking.
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  So it's the bigger issue that I, I think is it's not, it's not
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  the crime as such, it's the culture, the culture behind it.
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  This isn't just about one officer allegedly, allegedly
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  stealing. It's about what it represents
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  when it's about the low standards.
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  This is why I believe we've had such a high number of police
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  officers shooting civilians, Low standards, low standards in
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  recruitment, low standards across the board, low standards
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  in their culture. This, like I said, it's not
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  about this one officer allegedly stealing.
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  It's about what it represents. When senior officers, this is a
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  senior Sergeant. When a senior officer, the ones
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  who are meant to uphold standards, are charged with
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  basic, very basic criminal offences, it sends a message
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  that the culture is broken, the leadership is compromised, the
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  institution is rotting from the inside, and the public knows
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  that. We all know it.
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  Every scandal chips away at trust.
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  Every misconduct announcement erodes confidence.
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  Every. We're committed to transparency,
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  Announcement, press release, whatever sounds more like damage
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  control than accountability. Real accountability.
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  People start to wonder if senior officers, a senior Sergeant, if
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  senior officers are doing this, what else is happening behind
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  closed doors? How many incidents never make it
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  to a press release? You know, I could tell you a
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  couple of things, but I'll get into lots of trouble, so I
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  won't. So, yeah.
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  How many incidents never make it to a press release?
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  How many officers are protected instead of prosecuted?
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  How deep does the rot go? This is this is the issue.
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  This is what people want to know, because once trust is
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  gone, it doesn't come back easily.
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  Here's the what I think, here's what the politicians hate about
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  all these things. When police integrity collapses,
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  when they have these quantum announcements, government
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  integrity collapses as well. It collapses with it because the
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  police service isn't just a it's not just a standalone
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  organisation, it's an arm of the state.
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  It's if this arm is diseased, the body is too.
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  People, people don't separate the 2.
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  They see misconduct in policing as misconduct in governance.
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  And when senior officers are charged with crimes, it
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  reinforces the public's suspicions that the system is
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  corrupt, the oversight is weak, the leadership is incompetent,
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  and the government is either unwilling, and I think it's
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  probably more unwilling, unwilling or unable to fix it.
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  And this is how confidence erodes, not in one big scandal,
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  but in 1000, small ones. Let's just look at the last.
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  What the last two months, police officers making a turn that they
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  shouldn't have been making in their vehicle up in Cairns
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  because they wanted to arrest someone who was on the side of
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  the street. They strike a 71 year old female
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  woman who was crossing the street as she was allowed to do
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  and they killed her. What's what's happened with that
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  story that police been charged? Has anything happened?
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  Another story, they're chasing down a dangerous person running
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  around the park. They try and hit him with the
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  car, they're trying to disable him.
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  They get out and start shooting, just shooting at the man in a
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  built up built up area, houses everywhere, houses behind them,
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  cars driving along. A a female who was standing at
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  her front door in her own property was shot, was struck
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  with a bullet fired from a police gun.
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  Because they're just too busy reacting out of fear, I assume
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  trying to hit the dude, trying to stop him from running away,
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  and they've almost killed someone.
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  Bullets were found in cars that were driving by at the time.
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  What's happened with those police officers?
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  You know, we, we've had all these other incidents, as I've
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  said before, QPS, when something good happens, they are out there
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  announcing it from the top of a skyscraper, telling everyone,
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  look how good we are. Look at their conduct, the great
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  conduct of their police officers.
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  When things like this happen, it's very minimal, Minimal.
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  I mean, it's transparency, minimal transparency, minimal
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  information. This is the, this is the issue.
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  This is why the confidence erodes.
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  Like I said, it's not not in a big scandal, even though I
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  think, you know, hitting a woman with your car and killing is
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  fairly big. Shooting, spraying bullets
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  everywhere and hitting, hitting us, a person who's standing at a
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  front door, that's pretty big. But yeah, these aren't, they're
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  just all these little small cuts.
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  It's the senior Sergeant allegedly stealing shop goods.
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  Just another small cut, another little little section that
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  erodes public confidence. So let's here's the takeaway.
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  Here's what I what I think. OK, a senior Sergeant allegedly
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  stealing from a shop isn't just embarrassing, it's corrosive and
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  embarrassing. It undermines public confidence.
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  It damages the reputation of the Queensland Police Service, it
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  reflects poorly on the government and it reinforces the
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  growing belief that the system is broken.
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  And if people believe the system is broken then they don't want
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  to work within the system. This is the this is the issue
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  the government, the growing issue that the government is
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  facing. QPS can talk about high
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  standards all they want, but we know from all the stories that
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  we've seen over the last couple of years that high standards is
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  not really a part of their recruitment process at the
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  moment. It's all about money and
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  lifestyle. That's their high standards,
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  high money and great lifestyle. But until so until the actions
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  meet their slogans, until the actions match their slogans, the
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  public will keep rolling world's biggest eye roll, rolling our
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  eyes, and stories like this will keep proving the point.
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  As always, this is just my opinion.
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  What would I know? I'm Jay Fallon.
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  Thanks for listening. Get