CW: Contains the name and photo of a murdered Aboriginal woman.
A young mum walked into a police station in Queensland last year. She told the officer she was in fear of her life and had nowhere to turn. The officer told her to come back when she had ‘evidence it was physical’.
Within a week that young woman was dead and her husband charged with murder.
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About 330 Queensland women and children have died in domestic violence killings over the past six years.
Queensland is always in the top three states for femicide in Australia each year – it is a killing ground.
The state has had a specialist domestic violence unit for some time – an integral tool designed to keep women and children safe.
But that unit is on the verge of being scrapped in what has to be one of the most short-sighted decisions anyone in authorities could possibly make as this country’s femicide rates increase and domestic violence killings continue unabated.
Queensland Police Service has decided that ‘domestic violence case management is not core business’ for the force.
A review found the ‘perceived primacy’ of family violence meant the crime was taking up a ‘large amount of the police workload’.
Domestic violence and sexual assault are the key crimes women face in that state – indeed anywhere in the country.
To determine policing violence against women is not ‘core business’ is deeply problematic – it is also recognition of how important this state’s policing professionals see women.
There’s been major policing failures in the state over the past years, including officers telling Rowan Baxter how to to challenge a domestic violence order not long before he slaughtered Hannah Clarke and her children Aaliyah, Laianah and Trey.
Other problematic actions over recent years included:
QPS officers charging one woman with driving offences as she was fleeing for her life from her abusive partner;
The Queensland police commissioner trying to access records of a domestic violence victim to investigate her;
Repeated police failings before the domestic violence femicide of Kardell Lomas. Her abuser was told not to go near her until after officers left the scene or they would have to charge him. He killed Kardell not long after.
These are just a small number of cases where Queensland Police has failed women.
An inquiry into QPS found the force was rife with misogyny, sexism and racism and it was largely unchecked and unpunished.
How can women have faith in policing when our safety is no longer prioritised?
Every life this unit saved is a life valued and loved. Women deserve more than this – we deserve to have the crimes against responded to and policed. Women are not disposable – but QPS is treating us like we are.
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