Queensland Police Union proposes strict measures for domestic violence offenders

The Queensland Police Union (QPU) is advocating for stringent supervision of high-risk domestic violence offenders, proposing bans from dating apps and nightclubs to limit their access to potential victims.

As part of these proposed changes, offenders would have their phones tracked and any serious domestic violence offender granted bail would face electronic monitoring via GPS technology, similar to the practices in New South Wales.

QPU President Shane Prior stated, "Serial domestic violence offenders need to be held to account and they need to be treated the same as paedophiles and bikies."

The union reported that police respond to a domestic violence call-out every three minutes, projecting to attend 210,000 occurrences in 2025. This figure follows a 12 per cent increase in breaches of domestic and family violence orders.

"We as a police service are drowning in these jobs ... as of right now it seems to me that the most dangerous place in Queensland is in your own home," Mr Prior highlighted.

Mr Prior has called for repeat offenders to be flagged in the police system to aid frontline officers in assessing situations before responding. "When police go to a domestic and family violence job they should have the ability to see the offenders' history and whether or not they have extensive history around domestic and family violence," he explained.

Alongside these measures, the QPU's domestic violence blueprint reform proposal suggests allowing victims to report offences via rapid response video calls when it is safe to do so.

Mr Prior expressed that these changes could significantly reduce the hours spent by police on domestic violence cases, enhancing response capabilities. "We need to reduce the amount of family and domestic violence jobs so police can adequately get to every single job on time and we can only do that if we introduce severe penalties for serial offenders," he said.

Premier David Crisafulli acknowledged the need for improved measures in addressing domestic and family violence, stating, "one thing is for certain is that service providers, police, victims, there are a growing chorus of people who acknowledge we have to do more in the space of domestic and violence family."

He confirmed the rollout of GPS trackers, aiming to introduce 150 within the financial year, with a long-term vision to implement 500 trackers to ensure accountability for offenders.

The QPU has stated it consulted with domestic violence support services to refine the DV blueprint and plans to continue this engagement in the coming weeks, with Mr Prior emphasising the importance of these collaborations.

The ABC has reached out to the office of Police and Emergency Services Minister Dan Purdie for a comment on these proposals.