Only 53 per cent of Queenslanders surveyed believe police treat people fairly and equally, a result dramatically below the Queensland Police Service’s target and one that has raised fresh concerns about public trust in the state’s largest law enforcement agency.

The result falls well short of the QPS performance target of 75 per cent or more.

But the fairness figure is not the only warning sign.

Just 57 per cent of people surveyed believed police were honest, compared with the same 75 per cent target.

Only 61 per cent expressed confidence in reporting domestic violence to police — again substantially below the service’s target of at least 75 per cent.

The results reveal a significant gap between the level of community confidence QPS says it wants to achieve and how Queenslanders actually perceive the service.

Now, just as those indicators show troubling results, several of the key measures used to track public perceptions of police integrity, fairness and safety are being discontinued under the existing survey arrangement.

Queensland Police says it is working on alternative options.

Criminologists and transparency experts warn the loss of consistent public sentiment data could create a dangerous blind spot.

Fairness result misses QPS target by 22 percentage points

The 2025–26 survey results showed 53 per cent of respondents believed police treated people fairly and equally.

QPS had set a target of at least 75 per cent.

That is a gap of 22 percentage points.

The result matters because public perceptions of fair treatment are not simply a public relations measure for police.

They go to the heart of what policing researchers describe as legitimacy.

Police possess powers ordinary members of the community do not.

Officers can stop people, conduct searches in authorised circumstances, issue directions, use force, make arrests and place individuals before the criminal justice system.

The community’s willingness to accept those powers depends partly on a belief that they are exercised lawfully, consistently and fairly.

A person does not need to agree with every police decision to believe the system is legitimate.

But when large sections of the public begin to doubt whether people are treated equally, cooperation can become more difficult.

Witnesses may be less willing to provide information.

Victims may hesitate before making reports.

Communities may become more suspicious of police activity.

Routine encounters can become more confrontational because people approach officers with lower levels of trust.

That is why the 53 per cent figure deserves attention beyond the headline number.

It suggests almost half of respondents did not give the positive response required to count towards the QPS fairness measure.

Only 57% believe police are honest

The survey’s integrity measure presents another challenge.

Only 57 per cent of respondents said they believed police were honest.

The QPS target was 75 per cent or more.

Again, the gap is substantial.

Honesty is a particularly important measure for a police service because the criminal justice system regularly depends on the credibility of officers.

Police prepare statements, collect evidence, give testimony and exercise significant discretion.

Public confidence that officers act honestly is therefore inseparable from confidence in policing itself.

A 57 per cent positive result does not mean 43 per cent of Queenslanders believe every police officer is dishonest.

Survey measures must be interpreted carefully.

Respondents who did not provide a positive answer may include people with neutral views, uncertainty or negative perceptions.

But the result remains well below the service’s stated performance target.

It also comes at a time when Queensland continues to debate the way complaints against police should be investigated.

A major Commission of Inquiry into Queensland Police responses to domestic and family violence previously recommended the establishment of a Police Integrity Unit as an independent and separate unit of the Crime and Corruption Commission.

The proposed model was intended to deal with complaints involving police and strengthen civilian oversight.

The recommendation envisaged a unit led by a civilian senior executive officer, with whistleblower protections, victim advocacy and a progressively civilianised investigation model.

Years after the recommendation was made, the proposed integrity unit has still been the subject of government consideration and debate over the final complaints model.

Crime and Corruption Commission chair Bruce Barbour has publicly expressed frustration about delays surrounding the issue.

Against that background, a survey showing only 57 per cent of respondents believe police are honest carries additional weight.

Domestic violence confidence also below target

Perhaps the most sensitive result concerns domestic and family violence.

Only 61 per cent of respondents expressed confidence in reporting domestic violence to police.

The QPS target was 75 per cent.

Queensland has spent years examining police responses to domestic and family violence following serious criticism and a landmark Commission of Inquiry.

The inquiry exposed cultural, organisational and operational failures in the way some victims were treated.

Since then, QPS has introduced reforms, additional training and changes intended to improve its response.

The latest public confidence measure suggests the service still has significant work to do.

A 61 per cent result is particularly important because domestic violence is already heavily under-reported.

Victims may fear retaliation from an abusive partner.

They may be financially dependent on the person harming them.

Some worry they will not be believed.

Others fear losing their home, disrupting their children’s lives or escalating the violence by involving authorities.

Police are often the first government agency contacted during an immediate domestic violence crisis.

If victims lack confidence in reporting to officers, the consequences can extend far beyond QPS performance statistics.

Queensland Police said it recognised the critical importance of domestic violence and was working to improve public confidence.

The service pointed to specialised training for officers and collaboration with community organisations to provide better support for victims and encourage reporting.

Those initiatives are significant.

But the survey result indicates the community response has not yet reached the level QPS itself identified as acceptable.

The survey behind the figures is being discontinued

The most controversial aspect of the latest results may be what happens next.

The public perception measures were sourced from the National Survey of Community Satisfaction with Policing, known as the NSCSP.

The survey was coordinated by the Australia New Zealand Policing Advisory Agency on behalf of state and territory police services.

It has provided data used in police reporting and government performance material.

But the existing survey contract was not extended beyond June 30, 2026.

As a result, several QPS service standard measures linked to the survey are being discontinued under the current reporting framework.

Those measures include public perceptions of police integrity, confidence to report domestic violence and perceptions of safety.

QPS says it is working with ANZPAA on alternative options.

The decision does not necessarily mean Queensland Police has independently chosen to stop asking the public about trust or fairness.

The survey arrangement was national and ANZPAA includes representation from Australian and New Zealand policing jurisdictions.

But the practical result is the same unless a replacement is established.

Queensland risks losing a consistent series of public perception measures at the exact time the existing indicators are showing major shortfalls.

‘You can’t fix what you don’t know’

Bond University criminologist Terry Goldsworthy said transparency from Queensland Police was critically important.

He warned that a gap in public sentiment data could leave QPS leadership without a clear external measure of community perceptions.

“You can’t fix what you don’t know,” Dr Goldsworthy said.

“You’re essentially leading an organisation and you’re blind to any external sentiment about the integrity of the organisation.”

He described the prospect as “very problematic” for a police service whose credibility depends on public confidence.

University of the Sunshine Coast criminology and justice senior lecturer Kelly Hine also warned about the consequences of failing to measure public attitudes.

“It is essential for police organisations to understand how they are perceived by the public because an organisation can’t address a potential legitimacy gap it doesn’t measure or acknowledge,” Dr Hine said.

Her warning reflects a basic problem in institutional accountability.

Internal performance data can show how many arrests police make, how quickly officers respond to calls and how many offences are recorded.

It cannot automatically show whether the community believes officers act fairly.

A police service could improve operational outputs while simultaneously losing public trust.

Without external perception data, leadership may not see that decline until it produces more visible consequences.

Police trust has been declining more broadly

Queensland’s result sits within a wider Australian debate about changing public attitudes towards police.

Research published in 2026 has highlighted a long-term national decline in perceptions that police treat people fairly and equally.

Analysis of police performance data found the measure had fallen by more than 20 per cent nationally over the past decade.

Researchers have identified multiple possible contributors.

The COVID-19 pandemic dramatically changed the nature of police contact with ordinary Australians.

Officers were required to enforce public health directions, border controls, gathering limits and other restrictions that placed police in direct conflict with people who may previously have had little interaction with law enforcement.

That period politicised policing for some sections of the community.

But COVID alone does not explain the broader decline.

High-profile incidents involving police conduct, the growth of social media footage and increasing public scrutiny of institutional responses to vulnerable communities have all changed the environment in which police operate.

Body-worn cameras and mobile phones mean interactions that once occurred with few witnesses can now be recorded and distributed to millions of people.

Sometimes footage exposes genuine misconduct.

In other cases, short clips can circulate without the full context of an incident.

Either way, police organisations now operate under a level of immediate public scrutiny that did not exist a generation ago.

At the same time, officers are being asked to respond to an expanding range of social problems.

Mental health crises, homelessness, youth offending, domestic violence and drug-related harm can all bring police into situations where the underlying problem cannot be solved by an arrest.

Queensland Police’s own 100-Day Review examined pressure on frontline policing and the risk of “mission creep” as officers take on responsibilities that may require collaboration with other agencies.

The more frequently police become the default emergency response to complex social problems, the more opportunities there are for difficult encounters with the public.

QPS says the figures reflect the complexity of policing

Queensland Police has defended its commitment to trust, accountability and fair treatment.

A QPS spokesman said the survey results reflected the “complex and challenging nature of policing”.

The service said it remained committed to treating all members of the community fairly and equally.

QPS pointed to cultural awareness training, stronger community engagement and ongoing accountability measures.

Complaints from members of the public against sworn officers will continue to be tracked through the national Report on Government Services framework.

That is an important distinction.

The discontinuation of the NSCSP-linked service measures does not mean all police accountability data disappears.

Complaints data, crime statistics, operational measures and other reporting will continue.

But complaints and public perceptions measure different things.

A person can distrust police without making a formal complaint.

A victim can decide not to report domestic violence and therefore never appear in police complaint data.

A community can believe officers treat people unequally even if relatively few individuals pursue misconduct proceedings.

That is why public sentiment surveys provide information that administrative records cannot replace.

The timing creates an uncomfortable transparency problem

If Queensland Police had exceeded its fairness, honesty and domestic violence confidence targets, the end of the national survey might attract limited attention.

Instead, the measures are disappearing after producing results well below target.

Fair and equal treatment: 53 per cent against a target of at least 75 per cent.

Police honesty: 57 per cent against a target of at least 75 per cent.

Confidence to report domestic violence: 61 per cent against a target of at least 75 per cent.

That sequence creates an obvious public perception problem even if the decision not to renew the national survey was made through ANZPAA rather than unilaterally by QPS.

Critics will inevitably ask why a replacement measurement system was not ready before the old one ended.

QPS says it is working with ANZPAA on alternatives.

The critical issue will be whether any replacement allows meaningful comparison with historical results.

A completely different survey methodology can produce a break in the data series.

Questions may be worded differently.

The sample may change.

Response options may be altered.

Even if a new measure is statistically valid, comparing it directly with the old 53 per cent result may not be straightforward.

For accountability purposes, continuity matters.

The public should be able to see whether perceptions of police fairness are improving or deteriorating over time.

The police integrity unit remains unfinished business

The trust figures also return attention to Queensland’s unresolved debate over independent police complaints.

Recommendation 68 of the Commission of Inquiry into Queensland Police responses to domestic and family violence called for an independent Police Integrity Unit within the Crime and Corruption Commission.

The recommendation proposed that the unit deal with all complaints relating to police.

It was designed to be independent and separate, led by a civilian and supported by a complaints management system capable of identifying aggregate trends.

The proposed unit was also expected to publicly report on its activities and outcomes.

The model has not been fully implemented.

Government documents show the issue has remained under consideration, with ministers examining the appropriate police conduct and complaints framework.

At a parliamentary hearing in May, CCC chair Bruce Barbour again discussed integrity and public confidence issues as the commission continued handling thousands of suspected corruption complaint matters across Queensland’s public sector.

The fairness survey does not prove police corruption.

Nor does a low public perception result establish misconduct by individual officers.

But trust and complaints oversight are connected.

When people believe allegations against police are investigated independently and transparently, confidence in the institution can improve even where misconduct occurs.

When the complaints process itself is viewed with suspicion, every controversial police incident can deepen distrust.

Queensland is recruiting record numbers of police

The trust debate is unfolding while the Crisafulli Government significantly expands the police workforce.

In April, the government announced Queensland Police numbers had passed 13,000 for the first time.

The government said 877 new recruits had been sworn in during the previous 12 months and more than 2,300 recruits were moving through the recruitment pipeline.

The expansion is designed to rebuild frontline capacity and increase police visibility across Queensland.

More officers may improve response capability.

But workforce growth alone does not guarantee stronger public confidence.

Every new recruit becomes another representative of QPS in daily interactions with the community.

Training, supervision and organisational culture therefore become even more important during rapid expansion.

A police service can increase its numbers faster than it improves public trust.

The latest survey suggests Queensland cannot assume that more visible policing will automatically produce greater confidence.

What happens after 53 per cent?

The most important question is not whether Queensland Police likes the survey result.

It is what the service does with it.

A target exists to identify the level of performance an organisation wants to achieve.

When the result is 22 percentage points below that target, the gap should drive examination and reform.

Which communities have the lowest confidence in police?

Are perceptions worse among people who have recently interacted with officers?

Do victims of domestic violence have different views from the wider population?

Are particular regions recording stronger or weaker confidence?

What experiences cause people to believe police do not treat everyone fairly?

And which reforms have actually improved trust rather than simply producing more training programs or policy documents?

Those questions require data.

That is why the end of the existing national survey is more than an administrative change.

Queensland Police says it is working with ANZPAA to identify alternative options.

The service should be judged on whether the replacement is transparent, credible and capable of showing the public whether trust is recovering.

The current numbers provide a clear starting point.

Only 53 per cent of respondents believe police treat people fairly and equally.

Only 57 per cent believe police are honest.

Only 61 per cent have confidence to report domestic violence to police.

Every result is below the QPS target of at least 75 per cent.

Queensland Police has said it is committed to building trust and confidence.

The next challenge is proving that commitment can be measured.

Because, as Goldsworthy warned, an organisation cannot fix what it does not know.