The Queensland Police Service (QPS) has continued its program of promoting policing as a profession for new recruits, focusing on the career of Commissioner Katarina Carroll as the latest officer to share their journey.
In a statement, the QPS said women had been inspiring, empowering and succeeding in the Service for 90 years.
“The first intrepid women to venture into policing in the 1930s would have been immensely proud when Commissioner Katarina Carroll (pictured) stepped up to take on the highest ranking leadership role in the 15,000-strong organisation,” QPS said.
“Like all women — and men — who have achieved great things through serving their community, Commissioner Carroll started with the courage to first don a uniform and swear an oath of service in 1983.”
It said the following decades saw her move around the State building on her skills until in 2012 she took on the role of Assistant Commissioner of the G20 Planning Unit to command Queensland’s largest global peacetime security operation.
After a spell as the leader of the Queensland Fire and Emergency Services, she returned to the QPS as the Service’s first female Commissioner in August 2019.
“Commissioner Carroll’s first priority was to travel the vast State of Queensland talking to police and staff members to find out what the issues were, both locally and State-wide,” the QPS statement said.
“Police culture and organisational morale were in her sights, and she set the agenda by seeking input from across the QPS to define a new set of values all members could aspire to.”
The statement said a far-reaching independent strategic review of police operations was the catalyst for a redesign of the Service’s delivery model to ensure the QPS was dedicating its resources to where they were needed most.
Commissioner Carroll said there would always be challenges for law enforcement in a changing world.
“However, if we take a fresh look at our strategic direction and make sure our people are well supported, we are in good stead to successfully meet these challenges,” she said.
She said QPS officers were sharing their journey to help inspire Queenslanders to take a close look at a policing vocation.
