The Queensland Police Service (QPS) has adopted a technology product that allows the community to easily upload digital evidence, such as video footage and photographs, for its officers to review.
Announcing the new technology, Minister for Police, Mark Ryan said it would be specifically used to enable the public to upload vision of hooning behaviour, which the QPS could then use to take action under Australia’s toughest and strongest anti-hoon legislation.
“With this initiative, the QPS has become the largest user of the technology, produced by Axon Citizen, which has 20,000 customers worldwide and includes police forces in the United Kingdom and the United States,” Mr Ryan said.
In a statement, Axon Citizen said no one else in the world was collecting evidence from the community in this way and the QPS had positioned itself as a world leader in the area.
Mr Ryan praised the QPS for demonstrating its willingness to always look for innovative ways of supporting community safety.
“When it comes to technology, Queensland police are early adopters and this initiative is yet another example of why the QPS is truly world class,” he said.
Assistant Commissioner of the Road Policing and Regional Support Command at the QPS, Ben Marcus said the new upload capability was already producing results.
“The online facility has only been operating for a matter of weeks and already the community has responded, providing police with critical pieces of evidence,” Assistant Commissioner Marcus said.
“The support and cooperation of the community is very important to police work and this upload capability provides another significant way in which members of the public can assist police,” he said.
Assistant Commissioner Marcus said it was important to note that the web-based platform for collecting evidence met the QPS’s stringent cyber-security guidelines and was also used for storing police Body Worn Camera footage.
