While the U.S. reckoning with police brutality and racism became a mainstream news story in 2020, Australian police were able to continue largely unscathed despite numerous accounts of police brutality and 113 indigenous deaths in custody in 2019-20. Now, a series of inquiries into the Queensland Police Service (QPS) has brought a culture of bigotry and poor policing to light, sparked in part by the personal social media activity of some officers. Like many big institutions, their response to confronting evidence of misogyny, racism and homophobia included a review of the social media rules for officers. But does a revised social media policy help change disturbing behaviour within organisations like QPS, or simply keep them hidden?
The Background: Queensland Police Service Investigations
In late 2021, an internal investigation revealed staff were found to be sharing posts described by Queensland Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll as “horrible, racist, sexist … quite defamatory.” These posts were shared in multiple social media groups restricted to police force members – in one group, Defend the Blue, almost 2000 of the 3500 members were former or current Queensland officers. As a result of the investigation, 11 staff were found to be in breach of QPS code of conduct and should be disciplined by their managing officer. None were removed or suspended from the force and there is no public visibility as to what type of disciplinary measures were taken. In the aftermath, QPS said they would review their social media policy.
Another separate investigation into the dangerous culture within the QPS is taking place right now. Under the recommendations of Queensland’s Women’s Safety and Justice Taskforce, Queensland Attorney General Shannon Fentiman and the Commission of Inquiry have begun an inquiry into the QPS’ response to domestic and family violence. The investigation aims to identify any cultural, structural and procedural issues within the QPS that affect the way domestic and family violence matters are handled, and to examine how these contribute to the overrepresentation of First Nations people in the criminal justice system. Only halfway into what is expected to be a four month investigation, it is alarmingly clear that the QPS is an organisation where sexism, racism and homophobia are completely normalised, with daily revelations that officers actively delayed or avoided attending to domestic violence calls, called an Indigenous man a “savage” and deterred victims from seeking justice by misrepresenting the justice process.
It’s not hard to see how these two reviews are connected. The social media activity of some officers, as unearthed in the earlier investigation, reflects their true, personal beliefs about women and minorities that inform the way they conduct themselves on the job. Their posts are a red flag to the public about attitudes that would otherwise be kept behind closed doors.
Exclusive: Queensland police are investigating social media posts on a private Facebook group for law enforcement personnel that belittled domestic violence victims and implied officers purposefully avoid responding to DV incidents. https://t.co/c3WhvfUCxf
— Eden Gillespie (@edengillespie) July 30, 2022
Social media cop-aganda
Like all modern businesses, the QPS uses social media to curate and shape public perception – and their social media acumen has paid off. Through their official channels, the QPS have branded themselves as funny, true-blue enforcers of the law with a mix of posts including community engagement events, public service announcements and tongue-in-cheek jokes about the State of Origin and pop-culture references. In the mid-2010s, QPS’ social media strategy was so effective that it received a lot of positive media coverage – articles on sites including the ABC and Buzzfeed, praising them for being “better at social media than 99% of brands.”
In a post-George Floyd world, articles like these have fallen out of favour due to increased scrutiny of the police. But QPS have retained their online influence, with 1.1 million Facebook followers, 152,000 Instagram followers, and almost 30,000 TikTok followers (amassed in less than two years). For comparison, despite a much greater population, NSW Police Force has a comparative Facebook following of 1.4 million.
Like any other organisation, the QPS is also well aware that an officer’s personal online activity – no matter how small – can undermine the official marketing efforts. In 2020, an officer left a comment on an article about ‘unapproved’ thin blue line patches, which have been linked to far-right groups. It read: “So you can wear a patch celebrating two men having sex but can’t wear the TBL.” QPS said they would investigate the comment, however have not publicly released any updates regarding the situation.
Given social media is an important tool for police organisations to control public perception, you might expect their policies to be watertight to ensure officers know exactly what activity would be in breach. But that’s not the case.
@qldpolice Let’s go! 🍄 Think you’re ready to beat our #PoliceRecruit ♬ original sound – Queensland Police
Social media review reduces transparency
The current QPS Code of Conduct states that those who misuse social media by making posts about the organisation (or with information obtained in the course of their duties) that are not aligned with the QPS values may result in disciplinary action. But accounts that don’t show affiliation with the QPS would not necessarily breach this code of conduct.
Social media is what sparked these investigations in first place, so you might expect that the promised policy review would be a comprehensive overhaul. But rather than making the policy stricter and clearer, it seems the revisions will simply discourage officers from posting online to protect themselves from potential risks of being publicly visible.
An even vaguer policy seems aligned with Commissioner Carroll’s belief that most of the Defend the Blue’s members were involved for “the right reasons” and is not indicative of broader cultural issues within the force. By advising officers against posting their personal beliefs online without also introducing repercussions for hate speech or hate group affiliations, the ‘new’ policy simply keeps those views internal. If the public aren’t aware of the toxic beliefs held and shared within big organisations, how can we call them out or hold them to account?
This is not a phenomenon exclusive to the QPS alone. For any established institution – whether it’s a police force, a university or giant media organisation – all too often it’s the personal posts from staff that reveal the true values and culture, contrary to what the ‘official’ Instagram posts, press releases, and SEO-optimised websites suggest. And where there’s smoke, there’s usually fire.
Almost a year on, the QPS has yet to publish their new policy, and as the current inquiry continues (expected to close in October 2022) we hear new stories of officers perpetuating bigotry and miscarriages of justice. Law enforcement-only social media pages, with symbols and names associated with far-right extremism continue to exist and thrive with a steady stream of new posts and members each month. Officers at almost every level of the organisation have shown us who they are and what they believe in. It’s now time for the QPS to show us who and what they really protect – without hiding behind an opaque social media policy that allows more of the same.
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