QPS vehicle management
Acting Commissioner Steve Gollschewski said today the recent suggestion that the QPS was failing to keep pace with the operational requirements of an expanded service was not accurate.
“The way we have historically allocated vehicles has been based on the requirements and needs of police divisions, districts and regions as well as overall Service priorities,” Acting Commissioner Gollschewski said.
“This year, we have implemented an additional process to manage our extensive fleet of over 2,500 vehicles and constantly assess the vehicle needs of police across Queensland. This comes at a time when the Australian automotive industry is winding up production and we are forced to look at alternative vehicles and manufacturers.
“A fleet governance committee, chaired by the Road Policing Command Assistant Commissioner, considers requests for the number and type of additional vehicles. It is very important to best consider how to use public money in purchasing equipment and vehicles are one of our highest-cost items.”
Acting Commissioner Gollschewski said police districts and regions also have the ability to relocate vehicles in their area subject to local needs.
“Regions and districts can be flexible about how they position vehicles across depending on local priorities,” Acting Commissioner Gollschewski said.
“It is also important to remember that in determining the vehicle requirements of particular stations, we need to take into account how many officers are actually working at one time, rather than just the total number of officers based there.
“It is very rare – in fact, it is an extremely remote prospect – to have every single officer based at a station working at once.
“As we always do, we will continue to monitor the operational needs of the QPS and ensure we appropriately cater for the addition of new officers over the next few years.”
$32 million has been allocated by the State Government next financial year to allow for 700 new and replacement vehicles to join the fleet. This is on top of the nearly 800 new and replacement vehicles purchased this financial year.
