When I became Regional Superintendent of the North Coast Police Region in 1988, there was little accountability on me in regard to correspondence and budgets. Day-to-day files went from the Commissioner’s Office direct to districts and the district officers processed overtime claims, travelling allowance claims and returns for weekend work directly to the Commissioner’s Office. The only files that came to or through me were important ministerial ones, ones dealing with personnel and departmental investigation files.

It was possible for officers in charge and district officers to issue requisitions for goods or services, to sign off on telephone usage and the like without reference to me, the regional superintendent. That all changed in about July 1988 and continued to change until full regionalisation in 1990. When the change occurred I received an allocation for overtime, for Saturday and Sunday penalty rate units, for travelling allowance and for telephone usage. This was based on the combined amounts used by the districts in the previous year. (The Region then comprised Sunshine Coast, Gympie, Maryborough and Bundaberg Districts with Redcliffe being added later.)

The only direction I received was one to try to gain equity between districts and that there would be no more allocations for these items. It was a very difficult task because some of the district officers had been quite generous with their overtime allocations and for the travelling allowance they had approved.

Up until this change, district officers were able to relieve all absences from their one and two person stations with the knowledge, ‘She’s right; Brisbane pays’. But with an allocation from myself and a stipulation that there was no more for the year, they had to start thinking about their relief and that is when ‘drive-out relieving’ became fashionable. (For example a Murgon officer would drive-out each day to Proston and return in the afternoon rather than incur travelling allowance.)

I have noticed in recent years—and probably some readers have too—that little or no relief for one- and two-person stations has become quite fashionable. I am positive that it is caused by one factor—accountability by senior officers of their budget allocation.

The telephone usage was another one that showed some very large Telstra bills. I remember one such bill at a two-person station being extremely high due to the wife of the constable being an Avon agent. That type of account had been going through unchecked and was only found when the district officer had to start adding up his bills against his yearly allocation.

This article indicates the shift of accountability onto regional superintendents-assistant commissioners and some of the effects that that shift created.