The Queensland Police Service has achieved a record in its number of recruits, with an unprecedented 881 recruits currently in training at academies in Brisbane and Townsville as of last week.
Two new intakes of between 50 and 150 recruits began last week, joining seven intakes already in training to set the new record.
Most of the recruits – 776 in total – are completing the mainstream training program for first-time police officers, with the remainder having joined from other police jurisdictions.
More than 110 recruits are due to graduate in December, with this year’s numbers representing a 129% increase in new officers compared with 2023.
VEIL OF SECRECY TO BE LIFTED FOR MEDIA
MAGISTRATES will lose the ability to lock the media out of juvenile proceedings in a matter of days, under the new state government’s laws to keep courts open.
The new government’s youth crime laws aim to lift the veil of secrecy and will ratify a number of the LNP’s election commitments, including imposing adult punishments on children who commit 13 categories of crime, and opening up the courts to victims and media.
The transparency of children’s court came under the spotlight this year in the aftermath of the alleged stabbing murder of Ipswich grandmother Vyleen White, with the former government then putting in place new rules to enable greater access.
But judges were still armed with clauses allowing them to exclude the media if they believed it could prejudice the case or risk the safety of those involved.
Those rules were used last Thursday when journalists were barred from a murder committal by Magistrate Anne Thacker, despite the child’s own barrister saying she couldn’t give specific grounds to bar the media.
But the new State Government’s marquee youth crime laws will axe those clauses, stating the media, along with victims and their representatives or relatives, “cannot be the subject of an exclusion order”.
It is expected the laws will pass parliament this week and come into effect on December 20.
