Police go back to drawing board to equip officers for child abuse cases

Training programs police officers go through to deal with cases of child abuse will be overhauled by the Queensland Police Service.

University of Queensland psychology experts will lead the development of the training programs in partnership with QPS.

UQ professor Blake McKimmie, one of the project leaders, said they would use evidence-based and best-practice methods to ensure officers had the best possible training to deal with often delicate and tragic situations.

"We’ll be using a lot of the scientific research on these topics, and basically distil that down into concrete explanations that [officers] will be able to apply to their daily roles," Professor McKimmie said.

"The thing about human behaviour is so much of it is counter-intuitive … but it’s not just about telling people their understanding may be inaccurate, but getting them to understand why those beliefs are inaccurate and how things really work."

The UQ team is working on three tiers of training - a base level for regular officers, a middle tier for investigators, and a top tier for investigators who deal specifically in child abuse cases.

The development of new training for police on child abuse was one of the many recommendations of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

Detective Senior Sergeant Kirsten Helton said the QPS would give input into the training programs and work with UQ to integrate them into the overall training given to officers.

"The training will help officers to understand how trauma can affect victims differently, underpinned by research and informed by innovative learning practices," she said.

"This means taking a victim-focused approach to educating officers."

The content of the programs is still being devised, but will range from practices used in complex trauma cases to advanced victim responses for specialist investigators.

The announcement of the new training program comes as other measures are put in place across a range of state and federal departments and agencies to deal with child abuse.

According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, one-in-33 children across the country received child protection services in some form, including from police, in 2018-19.

The AIHW also found that in 2015, 2.2 per cent of the total disease burden in Australia was due to child abuse and neglect.

Professor McKimmie said they were planning to progressively roll out the new training modules over the next three years starting from 2021, making adjustments to the later stages depending on how the earlier ones performed.

"We’ll be doing it in collaboration with the police trainers and we’ll be informed by what their experiences are, so we get something that’s really fit for purpose," he said.

"[QPS] could have just ticked a box and done something very simple, but instead they’re making the most of the opportunity and really examining how they’re doing training on this issue so they can get the most effective outcome."