2 What advice would you give the commissioner? The Queensland Police Service (QPS), with around 12,000 employees and responsible for the policing of one of Australia’s largest states, is committed to high standards of performance, in part through continual evolution of operational procedures and staff attitudes towards their role and community co-operation. In geographical terms, the Queensland community covers over 1.7 million square kilometres, is seven times the area of the UK and five times the size of Japan. The population is approaching 4 million, and Queensland is the most decentralised state in Australia.

In the past few years, there has been an increasing focus on performance, with a strong emphasis on seeking greater accountability for performance from regional and district officers. When a new commissioner was appointed in November 2000, he established priorities for the service, focusing on professionalism, partnerships, people and performance.

The commissioner, Bob Atkinson, identified the need to develop a system that could focus overall performance across the organisation and provide strong leadership in communicating the service’s strategic direction, key operational priorities and the impact these had on the Queensland community