Only 56% of Queenslanders trust police honesty — what that means for private security

A business owner calls police after a disturbance outside their venue. They wait. When officers arrive, half their customers have already left — and according to new data, nearly half of Queenslanders wouldn't trust the responding officers to handle it fairly anyway.

The Queensland Police Service's 2025-26 annual report, tabled in state parliament and covered by ABC News (https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-10-05/qld-police-annual-report-reveals-failed-to-meet-integrity-goals/107217142), reveals the QPS missed every single public perception target it set for itself. Only 55.9% of Queenslanders believe police officers are honest — nearly 20 percentage points below the service's own 75% benchmark. Trust sits at 65.9%, and just 52.3% of residents believe police treat people fairly and equally. These aren't activist talking points. They come from the National Survey of Community Satisfaction with Policing, which sampled 20,811 Australians aged 18 and over.

Why this matters beyond the headlines

Police legitimacy research consistently shows that when communities distrust law enforcement, they are less likely to report crimes, cooperate with investigations, or call for help until a situation has already escalated. A 2023 BOCSAR study found that low police trust in New South Wales correlated with significantly underreported assault and theft in high-density urban precincts. Queensland's numbers suggest a similar dynamic is at play across the border.

For venues, property managers, and event organisers, the practical implication is straightforward: you cannot build your security plan around an assumption that police will be perceived as a neutral, trusted authority when something goes wrong on your premises. If 44% of your patrons distrust the officers who show up, de-escalation becomes harder, not easier.

The accountability gap

The report also flags that Queensland's independent police integrity unit — a recommendation from a 2023 domestic violence commission of inquiry — still does not exist. The Crime and Corruption Commission chair publicly criticised a "somewhat frustrating" three-year delay in establishing the body earlier this year. Without that oversight mechanism, there is no structural pressure forcing the gap between stated benchmarks and actual performance to close.

This is exactly the kind of environment where XGuard's documented, timestamped incident reporting becomes operationally valuable. When a crowd management situation ends in a complaint or a liability claim, the question is always: what happened, when, and who made which call? XGuard operators are trained to maintain a contemporaneous record — location-tagged, time-stamped, linked to a specific guard's shift — that exists independently of whatever the responding police unit later records. In a low-trust environment, that paper trail is not a bureaucratic nicety. It is your primary defence.

What venues and event operators should do now

The trust data does not mean police are useless or that you should avoid calling them. It means you should not treat a police callout as the beginning of your incident response. It should be the middle or the end.

Practical steps for Queensland-based operators:

1. Brief your security team on community dynamics. Guards working venues in areas with documented police distrust need to know that their own conduct — how they communicate, how they de-escalate, how they explain decisions — carries more weight than usual. Patrons who distrust police will extend that distrust to anyone in a uniform unless proven otherwise.

2. Build your own incident record before police arrive. Body-worn camera footage, digital incident logs, and shift handover notes all matter. If you are using a platform that does not generate an auditable trail, you are relying on memory in situations where memory gets contested.

3. Know your legal obligations. Queensland security providers operating under the Security Providers Act 1993 have specific reporting obligations that exist separately from police reports. A police report does not substitute for your internal incident documentation.

Pro tip: When police are called to an incident at your venue, designate one guard as the liaison officer — their only job during the handover is to give responding police a clear, verbal briefing on what happened, who was involved, and what actions your team already took. This reduces confusion, speeds up the handover, and protects your team if the account gets disputed later.

The bigger picture

Queensland's integrity numbers are a symptom of a longer-term structural problem: an oversight body that does not exist yet, benchmarks that have not been met, and a political blame game that is unlikely to resolve either issue quickly. That is not a reason to panic, but it is a reason to make sure your own security operations do not inherit the credibility problems that public policing is currently carrying.

The venues that will navigate this best are the ones that treat security as a professional service with its own standards — not a stopgap while waiting for police to show up.

Need protection where you are? XGuard connects you with licensed, vetted security operators in minutes — for events, residences, retail, executive protection, and fire watch. Available globally.

Source: au-abc-news — 2026-10-04