Queensland Police knew for years of risk of handing DV victims’ details to offenders

Queensland Police illegally provided victims’ addresses to perpetrators of domestic and family violence in seven cases despite knowing the risks for years, a report has found.

Information Commissioner Joanne Kummrow launched a review into the matter last December after it was reported by Nine News.

The homes of victims who were hidden and harassed or threatened by phone or email were recorded as crime scenes; this detail was later included in court papers given to the criminals.

At the time, senior police told Nine and parliamentary hearings that the problem was caused by an autofill element in data systems that officers had to correct manually.

Commissioner Steve Gollschewski later said police were unsure of the extent of the problem and only knew what had been reported.

Kummrow’s report, published on Wednesday, found police had been aware of the risks since at least 2017 but were slow to respond.

“An invasion of privacy of this nature is unquestionably serious as it carries the risk of further physical and psychological harm to surviving victims of domestic and family violence perpetrators,” Kummrow said in a statement.

“While the disclosure of victims’ addresses to criminals by the QPS was not intentional, prioritizing privacy is crucial to protecting victims from further harm.”

Kummrow found that police policies, procedures and systems failed on both a technical and administrative level and violated the state’s privacy law.