On February 25, 2009 LNP leader Lawrence Springborg pledged 1000 new police. "Safer homes and safer streets is going to be a core priority of an LNP Government', he said.

The Queensland National Party and the Queensland police union have had a close relationship. The Queensland Nationals when running for office seem always to promise to hire more police. Is that a priority need?

A former detective sergeant commented on Springborg’s pledge. “Less than 1/3 of police actually do police work and internal corruption is alive and well with nepotism just one of the enemy.”

Queensland's police service currently employs about 10,000 officers. Perhaps all that is needed is office staff hired at the salaries for office staff, and many of the 6,500 police freed from administrative duties could then do police work.

If there were an inquiry with teeth to eliminate corruption and all police would be acting as police we might find Queensland could well do with fewer police.

The money saved could go for other purposes.

We should have no need for more Police. Until 1824, when a magistrate invented them, there were no Police as such. Every individual had the powers of a policeman, and if a community did not police itself, it was fined in a jury court. Every man jack of them had to pay if a thief escaped.

What we do need is acceptance by the parochial politicians of Queensland that the Commonwealth has spoken, and that anyone who wants to be a Commonwealth public official has only to take up the freely offered position, created by s 13 and 15F Crimes Act 1914 ( Cth).

There was a Policeman at Longreach, exactly half way between Darwin and Brisbane made a sport of harassing interstate truck drivers. This made them really angry and there was talk of having him disappear. When the Commissioner of Police was called to account in New South Wales under S 15F for the actions of this renegade Policeman, in the District Court and Supreme Court under the Australian Constitution the totally corrupt New South Wales Courts refused to deal with the matter, but Robert Atkinson got the message.

There was a meeting of about 90 Police at Longreach. They agreed to stop giving interstate truck drivers a hard time. There was an outbreak of peace.

What Sprinbourg has to do to restore law and order to Queensland is repeal the Supreme Court of Queensland Act 1991, order all Judges on pain of dismissal to obey the Supreme Court Act 1995, and refuse to sit without juries unless consent in writing is had, and order all Registrars to file whatever a Commonwealth public official presents to a court. He also needs to repeal, Sections 102A to 102G in relation to a private complaint under the Justices Act 1886.

We don’t need more Police. Queensland will become a mecca for those seeking justice, if he does this, and Springbourg will have money for all the other things he wants to do. By S 39 (2) Judiciary Act 1903 a Queensland Court can deal with a Commonwealth problem from anywhere

The Police in Queensland have no idea what powers they really have. They wear a Crown on their uniform, but do not understand what power that gives them. They are concurrently Commonwealth public officials by the definitions in the Dictionary Criminal Code Act 1995 ( Cth). This became law on the 16th October 2001, and Section 7, catches every Judge and Magistrate in Queenslad who has failed to give a jury trial to any applicant. Springbourg will save all their super and all their estates will be forfeit to the Crown, if he accepts the Commonwealth is the Boss.

The Commonwealth can take control over the forces to execute and maintain the laws of the Commonwealth, by Section 51 Placitum (vi) and to weed out corruption, there should be a National Police Force. It did this by enacting the Criminal Code Act 1995 ( Cth). If Springbourg will just make the courts work, and make the public service accountable to them at the suit of anyone at all, accept that S 45 Trade Practices Act 1974 makes the suspension of licences for points lost illegal, as suspending the full rights of Australians to participate in the public life of the Commonwealth, then he should win. S 45 Trade Practices Act 1974 also guarantees everyone the right not to be excluded from the courts, as either juryperson or prosecutor.

Police in Queensland suffer discrimination. S 42 and 43 Acts Interpretation Act 1954 (Q) allows anyone to sue anyone else who breaks the law, and claim half the penalty, except a Policeman. Half the penalty used to go to Police Widows, until Labor in Queensland abolished that too. The Crown that the Police wear used to get half its revenue from criminals. The other half used to go to anyone who would sue a criminal. This made everyone a policing officer.

Queenslanders want a change now and again. Unless Springbourg accepts that he cannot outspend Anna, and must return to the roots of law enforcement he may not win

david f I think you have partly got it right. If police were freed up from bureacratic duties and less paperwork there may be no need for as many officers, at least resources could be more evenly distributed.

In some regional areas however, police services have been cut so much that even major towns no longer have a night presence and if police are needed urgently they often have to travel at speed from another township sometimes over 2 hours away.

We do need more police in areas where crime has increased, particularly given the increase in street crime, gang violence and outlaw motorcycle gangs in certain areas particularly where there are cultural tensions. Drug related crime has also increased. More crime means more police are needed.

The legal system has become so complicated now that police also spend a lot of time in necessary paperwork to ensure all legal procedures have been followed. Many cases can be dismissed on legal technicalities if police paper work and procedures are not up to scratch and this takes time.

Police corruption is a big problem and I agree that if that could be eradicated, or largely reduced more police would be actually doing their jobs. I am not sure how that one could be tackled because it would mean changing the whole anti-whistleblowing culture. Not an easy task.

I agree with freeing up the ones we've got to do the job they're employed for. Cops having case managers to do the paper work they create through law enforcement would help. IMO.

Making judges accountable for their decisions and getting them up to speed with what society expects from them in regards to punishment would help too. They could give up on sentencing via case law, grow a set, and start setting some precedents of their own.

Pete said:

"The Police in Queensland have no idea what powers they really have. They wear a Crown on their uniform, but do not understand what power that gives them."

You been a copper?.

With overpopulation, its gets... WELL...think.

EVO

We do NOT need any more Police! What we do need is for the Judicial system to do it`s job properly. The Judges, Magistrates and the Courts should apply the penalties more effectively!

For too long we have been hearing all the namby-pamby regarding rapists and violent offenders having suffered a poor quality upbringing!....Tough! but that is not the fault of the innocent victims of these monsters who have been scarred for life!

We need Policemen back on the beat. We need less time-consuming paperwork for Policemen. We need a genuine body to investigate and PENALIZE Policemen who are corrupt or who do the wrong thing! We need to return to the days of respect for the Policeman, ....a situation that cannot be achieved by random acts of unnacountable violence against members of the community by renegade or out of control Policemen!

We need to re-introduce the Death Penalty for Capital Offences!
We need to name and shame petty or first-time offenders regardless of age or social community standing! We need to return to public floggings for repeat offenders and maybe a spell in the stocks! We need to imprison recalcitrents and occupy them with rock-breaking hard labour, instead of allowing them to languish in the modest settings of a modern day cell, with all the comforts of home and a television set to watch! If that fails to rehabilitate serious offenders then it is time to simply put them down,.....considering we don`t have a Colony that we can deport them to!

Ya lost me at the death penalty Cup Handle.

We don't need that. No one can guarantee without fail that no one will be mistakenly executed.

Same as with hard labour and stocks and whippings. You're giving private contractors licence to run camps of torture.

How about we start with harsher sentencing and realistic judges then move on to where we put them?. I actually don't disagree with you but we've got to be a bit more socially enlightened than those that hack heads off at half time of the Sunday footy.

If people are like you we do not need at all any police! If we are bad and worst and criminals then we have a problem!
For me the question is not how many police we need but how much money we need to spent to humanise our society and minimise the need for police.
The police does not solve a problem but it try to minimize the cost from the problem on our society.
I prefer beter scools, better wellfair system, more understanding, acceptance, solidarity than more police.
Antonios Symeonakis
Adelaide