down time, for the preparation of statements, court attendance, leave requirements and training. It needs to be borne in mind also that surveillance/technical support is required by the Complaints Section and for other complex investigations. Clearly a more proactive strategy in the matter of police corruption will involve a heavier requirement for surveillance/technical support. Accordingly, the Commission’s overall requirement for surveillance/technical support needs to be re-assessed so as to take this matter into account, as well as ensuring adequate support for other operations within the Commission. Ideally, therefore, a surveillance team is necessary to ensure that each investigative team can utilise surveillance when needed during an investigation. Current investigations have relied heavily on the use of surveillance and technical support throughout most of its investigative phase. It is recognised that this has made life difficult for investigators working in other sections of the Commission’s operations. Experience gained during Operation Shield further highlights the importance of the technical unit to the success of a proactive investigative unit. Setting up sting operations such as Operation Lime, to test the integrity of police officers was resource-intensive for the technical unit. If the future direction of a proactive unit was to conduct targeted integrity testing, then an increase in human resources and equipment will be required to ensure proper functioning. Current resources do not allow sufficient down time for the repair and maintenance of equipment, advanced planning, training and statement preparation. Officers of the technical unit are working longhours and in the long term this can only result in mistakes, stress, and fatigue, which will be reflected in the efficiency and effectiveness of the unit. Appendix A sets out the current organisational design of the surveillance and technical units and appendix B the proposed organisational design for the surveillance and technical units.
COVERT OPERATIVES The appropriate use of CPOs is presently recognised as a worthwhile investigative tool. Because investigations will principally target police officers, special considerations arise. There may be some circumstances where a QPS CPO can be used, but in many instances this will not be possible. The question is how can this problem be best met? There are two possible solutions — either the Commission should examine the feasibility of recruiting and training CPOs for service within the Commission’s range of activities or, alternatively, interstate-based operatives could be engaged with the approval of other law enforcement agencies. In the course of Operation Shield, the latter process was used on one occasion. It will be a matter for ongoing consideration by Commission management as to how this issue can be best dealt with.
Police and Drugs: A Report of an Investigation of Cases Involving Queensland Police Officers 110
October 1997