Queensland Police

I rode the train up from Sydney and spent the night in Brisbane. The next day I took the #7 subway to Roma St., right to the Headquarters of the Queensland Police. 

It took awhile to get inside the secure part of the building, so I visited the police museum on the first floor while I waited.  It was a very good museum crowded with civilians, mostly uniformed high school kids being chauffeured around by museum personal.  They had a courtroom where they held a mock trail.  They had a mock crime scene where the teenagers had to guess from the evidence what occurred and other fine exhibits.

Just inside the main entrance. Check out the literature.

Sgt Peta came down and took me around the very large modern building.  Their communications center was next to none.  She introduced me around to her boss as well as to dispatchers actively working calls. It was an impresssive system and connected everyone who should be on a call for service together and all the information they needed.  She walked me through a couple of calls as they were occurring.

The inspector walked in while her boss, Paul, the overall commander of the center, located in a ring of screens in the middle of the large complex, explained his functions. The Inspector said he was checking to make sure Paul was doing his job.  I broke in said the Paul had just asked what the hell I was doing there with all the activity that was going on and was about to throw me out. Paul agreed smiling and he let it go.

Sgt. Peta.

Sgt. Peta showed me the Incident Command Center.  I forgot how many millions of dollars it cost.  She said it was thanks to a then impending visit from Obama that the state came up with the money. They've used it many times since for large events and situations. It is one thing I couldn't take a photo of but, believe me it was first rate and had consoles for a couple of dozen officers, a light board conference/planning table and access to everything they might need.

She walked me around and pointed out the different investigative divisions, even the Police Superintendent as he was walking out with the Fire Superintendent.

One of the interesting discusions was about gun violence in the U.S. They were under the impression that we were all being shot at everyday, all the time. They thought we all took our uniforms off at the end of shift before we went home.  I told him some departments did but, not most.  I said the biggest issue was having to be in a highened state of alert at all times, even having coffee, lunch or casual contacts.  It was taking its toll on officers and that many large cities were have trouble retaining and in hiring of officers.  I was told one officer came over from Seattle. Considering their politicians, that makes sense.

I asked if outlawing guns had been sucessful.  To my surprize, they all agreed that yes it had.  Shootings were rare and when they did happen, they made the national news. I told them I thought there were too many guns in the U.S. to be able to eliminate them except from law-abiding citizens. 

There is room full of dispatchers outside his ring, to the left one side of the Brisbane River the right side the other.

Cut right off a uniform.

Main entrance.

Mock Courtroom

Karen Cranky looks an awlful lot like the museum director.

I remember the card slider system (top left photo insert) when I worked dispatch on Memphis PD.