50 Years of World Class Policing through Education & Training
In 1971 work on the new Queensland Police Academy at Oxley was well underway and was completed in time to receive the first batch of 142 successful applicants, 118 men and 24 women. The Queensland Police Academy was officially opened in the evening of 24 March 1972 by his excellency Air Marshall Sir Colin Hannah K.B.E, C.B, Governor of Queensland.
The aims of the Academy were outlined in the Official Opening of the Queensland Police Academy Booklet, 24 March 1972:
The Queensland Police Academy has been established because no existing institution could be readily adapted to provide the type of general education and vocational training in an environment specially designed to equip future policemen and women with attitudes and skills necessary to meet growing threats to law and order in our community. The keynote of our society is change. Change in technology; change in social and moral attitudes; change in capacity to be aware of events in a world-wide setting; change in the density of urban settlement and
consequent effects on human behaviour; and above all from the police officer’s point of view, change in the number of persons with the knowledge and capacity to participate in sophisticated and subtle crime against individuals and against the community…
Queensland Police Museum image PM0426.
In carrying out the functions of a police force, the police officer is required to meet, and effectively deal with, a multiplicity of different situations, all kinds of people for all walks of life. He therefore must be equipped by proper training and education to make good value judgments; to maintain a proper perspective; to appreciate the underlying causes of human behaviour; to communicate with precision and clarity; to display qualities of leadership and to be skilled in all aspects of his required functions. It is therefore a necessity that a high level of education covering a wide field must be available to Cadets. The Queensland Police Academy has been staffed to provide such training.
When the Academy became fully operational it accommodated 450 students, 350 of whom could stay in residences on campus. The first Academy principal was Inspector J.H. Allsop and Inspector Frank Clifford filled the Deputy Principal position. 142 applicants including 24 women, were accepted into the first intake in January 1972.
With the new Academy came the phasing in of a new Cadet system which accepted individuals with a least a year 10 level of schooling who were then able to complete years 11 and 12 at the Academy. Cadets had to be 15 years or older, at least 5 feet 7+1/2 inches tall and after three years of study, graduated at the age of 19.
The first induction parade occurred on 15 December 1972 when 22 men and 11 women were sworn-in as Constables, 13 of them graduating from the Cadet system.
This information has been supplied by the Queensland Police Museum from the best resources available at the time of writing.
The Police Museum is open 9am to 4pm Monday to Thursday and 10am to 3pm on the last Sunday of the month (Feb-Nov) and is located on the Ground Floor of Police Headquarters at 200 Roma Street, Brisbane.
Contact: E: museum@police.qld.gov.au
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