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NSW Police actions to be scrutinised, but is the real problem a lack of leadership? · The Slippery Slope

• 0:12
  Alright, Jay Felon here. Thanks for listening to the
• 0:14
  Slippery Slope. So I've noticed a few headlines
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  coming through again about police earlier on in the week
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  and reading some of these headlines someone was a little
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  bad news for police in general across Australia.
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  But I realised something that Australia is in a fairly dire
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  predicament when it comes to policing standards.
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  This might opinion within Australia and I believe it all
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  reverts back to poor leadership. We've had extremely poor
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  leadership for probably the best part of a the best part of a
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  decade now, but definitely since the, well, since just before the
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  pandemic really took hold. And when what we saw during the
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  pandemic is we we saw leadership failing to really lead the
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  troops, what that were doing that would just that they would
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  just bowing to political demands.
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  We had bureaucrats coming in and calling the shots.
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  And then we didn't have leadership.
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  We didn't, we didn't have the hierarchy.
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  And I'll speak specifically for QLD hierarchy supporting the
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  troops on the ground, supporting the men and women who were
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  trying to do the job that they're they're paid to do that
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  they want to do, supporting their community.
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  Instead, we had leadership come out and attack officers,
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  attacked the people who they're supposed to support.
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  And, and, and they really let down not just the policing
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  community, but the community as a whole, you know, the the
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  states where they're serving. And this is the problem.
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  And then OK, I'll go through a few of these different headlines
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  just to explain to you what I mean.
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  This headline here revealed, it's from the Guardian says
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  revealed Australian police accused of improperly accessing
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  forced databases more than 2000 times.
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  So basically saying Advocates say complaints about
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  unauthorised access of police databases may be tip of the
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  iceberg and the particularly worried about cases involving
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  family violence. Friend noticed her son-in-law's
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  behaviour was escalating. She says he was increasingly
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  controlling of her daughters Sarah's life, monitoring her
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  finances and being verbally abusive.
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  The three were all living together and the situation felt
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  particularly risky because he was a police officer.
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  He had surveillance skills. Who the heck is this fella?
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  Precious, actually, yeah, don't worry about that.
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  He had some violent schools and access to information that
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  seemed to give him a sense of power.
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  And he held it over their heads. So, you know, I was reading this
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  story anyway, and I thought, well, it's, it's crazy.
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  That's how did we get this file with police feel that they are
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  that they are able to access information was really should be
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  out of their bounds. You know, we, we all know you're
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  trained, you're, you're taught, it's drummed into you that you
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  know, you can't be accessing personal information and yet
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  people, you know, people will go after it, people will go and try
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  and push the boundaries anyway, especially when you come for
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  these, these issues, if you've got these issues with domestic
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  violence surfacing. This next headline, police
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  actions to be scrutinised after alleged domestic violence
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  murder. Reading this the other day, I
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  thought, wow, this is just a sad story.
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  So critical Incident investigation has been launched
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  to examine police's response to domestic violence incident in
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  northern NSW overnight which a woman was alleged allegedly
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  murdered. Maine has been charged with
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  murder over the death of a woman, believed to be in her 40s
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  at her home on Johnston St and Casino, southwest of Byron Bay.
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  So I call with made a 000 after the incident, shortly after
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  about the incident shortly after 1:30 AM.
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  NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Peter McKenna PM
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  has said. However, police did not
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  acknowledge the call until 2:25. Wow then rushed to the scene to
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  arrive at 2:27. They arrived to find the woman
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  breathing but unconscious with obvious injuries to her head.
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  Unfortunately, her condition deteriorated and she died at the
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  scene, McKenna said. So a man, 31, was arrested at
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  the scene and taken to Lismore police station.
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  This man has been this afternoon has been charged with one count
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  of murder. McKenna said the time frame in
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  which police responded to the call that prompted the need for
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  an independent investigation. The delay has given me enough
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  concern that I have asked for an independent investigation,
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  McKenna. McKenna has said.
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  I was reading that thinking, well, I wonder what, I wonder
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  what they're going to come up with.
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  I wonder what the, you know, the, what they're going to say.
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  Well, we've, we've discovered this, this is what we have
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  learnt. And so this is how we, we can
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  prevent this from happening again.
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  I, I think, I think NSW hasn't started with international
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  recruiting yet. So this is where I think they're
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  heading now. There's other headlines getting
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  around about NSW and they're they're starting to really pump
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  themselves up saying how you know they're doing such a great
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  job because their recruitment is going quite well.
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  They've started rebuilding the Force.
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  However, I'll bring up the next headline.
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  You know, this hit on here says police recruitment surges as new
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  programmes are introduced to encourage more people to join
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  the NSW Police Force. So this is in May of 2024.
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  And you know, it's all great news when you're reading, when
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  you're reading down here, you think, wow, that's, that's
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  really good news. It's good to see that they're
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  rebuilding. However, you get a couple of
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  paragraphs in and they say we are currently carrying more than
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  1500 vacancies, a legacy of the previous governments neglect and
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  mismanagement of police recruitment and retention.
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  So I'm sitting there going, well, OK, so it's, it's great
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  that they're starting to rebuild, but they're still
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  carrying 15115 hundred vacancies.
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  That is huge, huge. But this is the problem that
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  we've had for the last, like I said, the best part of a decade
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  across Australia we have had poor leadership and they can
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  blame previous government. Everyone likes to blame, blame
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  the previous government. It's always the other followers
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  fault, isn't it? When you get in power, it's
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  always everyone else's fault, but as as we've seen here in
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  Queensland, they can't blame the previous government.
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  They've been in power for far too long.
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  The, we can blame the previous government all we like.
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  If you've got poor leadership in your ranks and you're not
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  leading the team the way you're supposed to, you've got to look
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  in the mirror and say, well, this may be just my fault.
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  And if you're not willing to change, like I've said before,
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  nothing will change if nothing changes.
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  So we can't sit there and, and cry about how things aren't
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  going right and how the, the, how the, how the, the rank and
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  file keep leaving, how there's constantly a rotating door there
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  if you're not willing to change the way you're doing things.
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  But this is something that we've seen, well, it's permeating
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  throughout the whole of the nation, throughout all of
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  Australia. So we've got other headlines
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  that have come up. You know, SA's got their multi
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  $1,000,000 campaign goes overseas to boost police
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  recruits amid staffing crisis that came out towards the end of
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  the year. So SA's are doing that.
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  Obviously Queensland, Queensland has started recruiting from
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  overseas. This headline here, which came
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  out on the ABC News, says police recruitment crisis is putting
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  officers and the community at risk.
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  This is in May of 2023. So this says the organisation
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  representing police unions across the country says officers
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  and the community will be at risk for recruitment crisis
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  isn't addressed soon. We're in a crisis at this across
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  the situation at this point in time, said Ian Leavers.
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  He's the president of the Queensland Police Union and the
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  Police Federation of Australia. He says it's a real challenge,
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  not only recruiting but in the retention of police across
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  Australia. And we are putting the police
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  officers who are left at risk and we are putting the community
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  at risk. So this is the issue, OK.
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  It's been like he said, real challenge, not just recruiting
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  but the retention rate. Obviously you come over here.
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  Queensland Louis International Police talents under a new
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  agreement and what else WI polices a new initiative could
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  put overseas recruits on a pathway to citizenship.
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  So I was reading these this story about, about that
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  unfortunate well situation in NSW where domestic violence
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  incident has turned into murder by the looks of it.
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  And then you're reading about recruitment and, and what's
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  happening with the recruitment in NSW and you realise there are
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  still 1500 vacancies short of what they are, what they need
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  within their ranks. And you realise we have got a
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  major problem within Australia. We need police and we need good
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  quality officers and just as importantly, we need good
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  leadership within police. Like I said, we've had almost a
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  decade, the best part of a decade now of poor leadership.
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  And it was, look, just speaking, just from what I could see
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  within Queensland Police where I was serving the leadership
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  there, their idea of training a new leadership was training
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  managers. They were next, never actually
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  training leaders. Every now and then they would
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  get leaders come through and natural born leader come up
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  through the ranks. OK.
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  And that's if they would allow them to actually go up the
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  ranks. Because quite often the natural
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  leaders, the good leaders are you will see their leaderships,
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  leadership abilities are stifled.
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  They are kept at the, the Sergeant, maybe senior Sergeant,
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  but very often they're, they're kept at just the sergeants ranks
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  and the people that are allowed to go up of the people that the
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  politicians, the, the people that can write a good essay, the
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  people that can talk about themselves, you know, really
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  well. Quite often they're not, they're
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  not great leaders. They can just talk about
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  themselves really well. They can just write a good essay
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  and they, they know management processes.
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  And what I saw in Queensland police service was you had a lot
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  of management, a lot of managers, but you didn't have
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  many leaders. So we've had quite a few, quite
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  a few years of all leadership, lack of leadership quality.
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  And it this all just came to the forefront when the pandemic, the
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  plan, sorry, the pandemic came about, this all came to the
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  forefront. That's when we could really see,
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  wow, managers aren't good when you're going into battle, when,
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  when the, when the, when the crap hits the ground, when you
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  really need people to step up and, and, and lead, you're,
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  you're really in trouble if all you got is a group of managers
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  and you've got no leaders in the ranks.
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  And this is what happened. This is what I saw.
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  This is what I believe happened within QPS.
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  And this is what I think has been happening around the rest,
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  the rest of the states around the country.
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  So when I look at what's happening now with NSW, OK,
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  they're starting to get back up on track, but they're still
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  behind in recruitment. I think what they're going to
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  be, what they'll soon announce, is, hey, we still can't attract
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  enough people, so let's start recruiting from overseas.
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  All of the state police services need to do a complete overhaul
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  of their leadership teams. Complete overhaul and completely
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  rethink the way they've been looking at their leadership
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  teams for the last decade or possibly even longer. 2 decades.
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  Get rid of the manages. Start helping the leaders and
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  training leaders. You you have natural leaders,
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  but you can still train. You can still teach leadership
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  and stop placating to the politicians.
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  We need strong men and strong women leading in the police
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  services. And you know what?
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  Woke ideologies will not save your country.
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  Woke ideologies will not protect your countries, your country.
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  Woke ideology will only bring about disaster for you and I.
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  We need strong men and women, like I said, to lead our armed
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  forces and to lead our police. Enough, enough of the demonic
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  woke ideologies. That's my opinion.
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  I'm Jake Fallon. Thanks for listening to The
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  Slippery Slope. And save