Drink driving police may be stupid but still deserve to be treated fairly

Queensland Police Union of Employees Acting General President Ian Leavers has expressed concern at the proposed new penalties for officers who are caught drink driving.

“We do not condone drink driving and I personally believe that officers who are caught drink driving have let themselves and everybody else down,” Mr Leavers said.

We are not on a collision course with the Commissioner…we agree on most things, however, we do hold different views on some things.

The indicative penalties that have been released can amount to 10’s of thousands of dollars in even the minor cases.

These penalties are far more than the courts apply and are clearly excessive.

Each case needs to be dealt with on an individual basis with the officer’s service history taken into account.

If we think that a penalty that is handed down under this new regime is manifestly excessive we will ask the Misconduct Tribunal to intervene.

It’s one thing to want to discourage police from drinking and driving, but quite another to impose a penalty that is completely out of step with what is reasonable.

Unlike parliamentarians, police who drink and drive have already have little chance of promotion inside of a decade, demoting them just adds a massive unfair cumulative financial penalty.

I have a blunt message to our members – don’t drink and drive, however my message to QPS management is just as blunt – treat our members fairly or we will use every legal avenue to overturnyour unjust penalties,” Mr Leavers said.