The Crime and Corruption Commission (CCC) has found that Queensland Police engaged in corrupt hiring practices in order to place more women in the force. The CCC said staff began to “manipulate processes, data, language and the truth” to gratify executive “aspirations” and the organisation’s media image.

The report resulting from the probe (pdf below) found that if various discriminatory practices had not been implemented, “an estimated 200 more meritorious male applicants would have been successful in their attempt to join the QPS”.

Two QPS employees and a Public Safety Business Agency employee have been suspended as part of an internal disciplinary process while a fourth person identified in the report has since left the QPS.

Different standards had been applied to female and male applicants in order to boost female police to 50% of the work force. The report said-

“Females [were] selected in preference to male applicants who had performed to a higher standard across entry assessments. By late 2017… some female applicants were approved for progression by methods including: lowering the required standard for female applicants on cognitive assessment [including for female applicants who had already previously been told they did not meet the required standard].”

Female applicants who had failed aspects of the physical assessment or were previously deemed not suitable on psychological grounds, were also allowed to progress, the report found.

Who doesn’t expect the same kind of deceit to be occurring in the NZ Police Force? However there is little chance of it being investigated here as it was in Queensland.

CCC Report (pdf)