Qld Police rolls out new communication platform

Queensland Police is using Workplace by Facebook to “break down bureaucracy and hierarchy” in the organisation.

The rollout of the enterprise communication platform began in March and has helped Queensland Police engage with its workforce to issue rapidly changing Covid-19 directives.  

“When Covid hit there were some extraordinary challenges for the organisation - we're talking about new directives and new legislation happening within hours or within days,” Commissioner of Police Katarina Carroll said.

Speaking during Workplace from Facebook’s Transform summit, Carroll said the platform allowed the organisation to share information quickly, across all levels of seniority, and gave junior staff the ability to ask questions “in an area that was legally changing all the time.” 

“When a decision is made by the government that you are to shut the borders to the rest of the country, and that has to be done within two days, you have got to change policy directives, legislation, training, communication, and engagement very very quickly," she said.

The commissioner used the platform to deliver a broadcast every week in the early part of the pandemic to reassure the organisation. 

QPS also built a bot called Cornelia on the platform that is designed for mobile and can “cut through days and weeks of information”. 

There are 1100 groups on the QPS Workplace platform, including “feel good” content from the puppies being raised for dog squads, the QPS news page and podcasts about wellbeing and health. 

Carroll said the decision was made prior to the pandemic to change the way the organisation communicated with its 12,000 police and 4000 support staff. 

“The Queensland Police Service is a very hierarchical organisation … there are 10 ranks within our department, from the commissioner to the constable, that sometimes makes it challenging getting messaging through the organisation, particularly two-way communication, and it's very unusual for my staff to ask questions a couple of levels above," she said.

“My hope for the future is that Workplace will continue to break down that bureaucracy and that hierarchy.”