Dempsey Accused Of Censoring Information About Crime

Media Release.

Shadow Police Minister Bill Byrne says the unprecedented decision to halt production of the annual statistical review of crime and policing in Queensland shows the Newman Government is wedded to censorship of any news which exposes its failures.

Police Minister Jack Dempsey this week confessed that he had halted publication of the annual review which has enabled Queenslanders to keep track of crime trends and police priorities since 1991.

“The decision by Police Minister Jack Dempsey to censor information and deliberately obscure the facts about crime in Queensland must be challenged,” Mr Byrne said.

“This is an administration that carps on about open government and transparency as it systematically seeks to lock down criticism of its rank bad management by locking away information."

“There has been an annual statistical review of crime and policing in this state every year for decades."

“Now, without any prior discussion and no mention of his intentions in Parliament, this hapless Police Minister has suddenly decided to scrap it on the spurious premise that it costs too much to publish."

“The Minister could have analysed the data and put it on line for everyone to see, but he doesn’t want you to know. The value of a comprehensive statistical analysis far outweighs any budgetary concerns."

“In the past the annual review has provided easy access to details about police numbers and personnel, regional crime statistics, trends, comparisons and detailed analysis of types of crime and the performance of officers region to region, town to town.

“Details such as the relationship between victims and offenders and the age and sex of criminals are vitally important to those who comment on and seek to improve our society."

“Mr Dempsey says that information will still be available online, but he fails to point out that, even to those with advanced information technology skills and lengthy experience, it is practically impossible to wade through bewildering spreadsheets to extract and correctly interpret relevant data."

“In any event the information online does not include crime rates per 100,000 people, it doesn’t give a breakdown on the police strength at each station, it doesn’t include details on police disciplinary matters or officers who have been suspended or stood down."

“Last week the Police Union exposed the Newman Government’s claims to have increased the number of police officers in places such as Rockhampton, Townsville and Cairns to be a sham."

“Mr Dempsey is running scared. He doesn’t want people to know that he has not kept his pre-election promises on police numbers and can’t stand scrutiny. He wants to tell us nothing and treat us like mushrooms.

“Without the annual statistical review where will people go to get the facts about domestic violence or sex crimes or the percentages of crimes committed by teenagers?"

“The Queensland Police annual report told us that overall crime went up this year by 2% under the LNP which means some crime types might have risen by a lot more."

“The Opposition is calling on the Minister to change this alarming decision now or to be forever seen as the man who was so ashamed of his record he deliberately hid the facts to cover the tracks.”