Submission to the CCC re QPS treatment of cycle incidents

[cowled]

There are members of the Queensland Police Service who want to support a push from cyclists for cultural change within the organisation.

I have documented two instances where the QPS tried very hard to ignore my genuine complaint in a letter of complaint that is currently under investigation.

I recently met with the Snr. Sgt. who is investigating my complaint. In particular, we talked about One item in my letter where I am making an appeal for the QPS to initiate a Crime and Corruption Commission investigation into the corrupt manner in which some QPS members choose to conduct themselves by ignoring evidence and preferring to conduct themselves in a manner that undermines legislation as well as Queensland Government safety initiatives such as the split 1m / 1.5m minimum safe passing distance rule (s.144A).

I have requested that the QPS initiate the CCC investigation because I believe that it will have much greater chance of succeeding if the QPS publically supports our drive for a change in culture within the Service. The Snr. Sgt. agreed and advised me that he would recommend to his superiors that the QPS initiate a CCC investigation. He was also somewhat realistic in his expectations when he admitted to me that he could not guarantee that his recommendation would be adopted by his superiors.

The upshot of my discussion with the Snr. Sgt. is that he has asked me to prepare a separate submission to the CCC, making note of the fact that he is concurrently recommending the same thing via internal chain of command.

I will be using the examples in my letter (attached) to form the basis of my submission to the CCC, however, I need the support of other cyclists who may have experienced a similar reluctance from QPS members to enforce the law against motorists who have placed our lives in danger. In particular, if you have video footage of a close pass (i.e., contravention of the 1m rule, s.144A), please prepare your own story of your interactions with the Police and send it through to me. I will collate everything into one submission and send it to the CCC.

If you want to ensure that the Queensland Police Service takes a serious look at the way its members treat the most vulnerable road users, then please support my appeal for contributors to a submission to the CCC. Please get this information out to your networks.

Please contact me via email at craig.cowled@qut.edu.au ... or on phone, 0421 135 826.

[foo on patrol]

Be interesting to see how it goes.

Foo

[elantra]

Obviously we need to be thankful to you for raising this issue and approaching the QPS and CCC.

I don't really have much to add, fortunately my times on the roads have been relatively incident free in recent years.

However, dare i suggest you raise your proposal with Bicycle Queensland and see if they will give you some support ?