We’re all calling for urgent reforms, so why aren’t governments listening?
A recent investigation into police-led responses to domestic and family violence revealed it took Queensland police more than 4 hours to respond to a ‘code one’ incident1. Code one incidents are considered urgent and involve imminent life-threatening harm. The findings have raised important questions about police capacity to adequately meet the demand for support across a diverse range of social and health situations, to which they are often the first responder.
Calling for urgent reform
The police union president, Shane Prior, is calling for urgent reforms that move the responsibility of social and health matters away from police2 and towards suitably skilled personnel. The AFR Campaign and coalition hear these calls for change and we know the solution – urgent and sustained investment into alternative first responders.
“Police are bogged down, we can no longer continue and allow this to be the norm, because we’re going to see more and more of this, and I fear that more people are going to die unless there are more urgent reforms.”3
Alternative first responders include peer-workers, trauma-informed and culturally aware outreach teams, and people trained in de-escalation. These models of care, when resourced appropriately, can provide the support people need in situations of distress.
“Funding to expand police capabilities is instead better spent investing in community response programs. Governments should adopt a justice reinvestment strategy, allocating a portion of public safety funds traditionally spent on policing into community-based health, social and economic support initiatives that provide crisis response and foster long-term safety and resilience.”4
Alternative first responders rooted in community needs will also reflect the diversity of the communities they serve. Recent data shows this diversity is lacking in police forces across Australia, which leads to bias and discriminatory policing. “A 2022 report found that over 90% of Victoria Police’s Critical Incident Response Team identified as cisgender men, raising serious issues and risks when those officers are tasked with responding to incidents of domestic and family violence. Police responses do not reflect an understanding of the communities they serve, and marginalised communities often lack access to first responders who understand their experiences and specific needs.”5
Right person, right response
When we fail to meet the social and health needs of people, we fail entire communities. The wrong police-led response has ripple effects of harm. In the context of domestic and family violence policing, the ‘Harm in the Name of Safety Report’, found “65% of participants raised concerns about police practices which extend the abuse of, or harm to, people experiencing violence, including by criminalising victim-survivors or colluding with perpetrators.”6
Social and health needs must be met with a social and health response, not a punitive one. The right response creates real safety among community and the ripple effects of getting this right, stand to serve all stakeholders, police included, with a fit-for-purpose response that centres community needs.
“If you want police to be mental health workers, social workers, prisoner daycare for Queensland Corrective Services, then the knock-on effect is that we’re not going to be there to do the stuff that we need to do.”7
Together on alternatives
Investing in alternative first responders to manage an increasing demand for support, across a broad range of social and health situations, makes sense. Alternative first responders are not abstract; they exist in community, driven by community, and are deeply connected to the places and people they serve.
In Queensland, Murri Watch, which operates 24/7, diverts approximately 15,000 people from the criminal justice system every year,8 through culturally proficient, community-sensitive and highly professional services,9 including; supported accommodation, community patrol, cell visitors in watchhouses and diversion from police interactions and custody.
The Mudgin-Gal Women’s Place in NSW offers Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women a drop-in centre with broad access to support, services and facilities 9am-5pm. Through extensive consultations, “several women spoke not only about how negative interactions with the police might mean that they avoid contacting the police in the future, but also described the intergenerational impact those poor policing responses had on their children.”10 Alongside this feedback, women attending the Mudgin-Gal space emphasised the utmost importance of lived experience in the first response.
Police understand they were never the right response for social and health needs. Alternative first responders show us what’s possible when government invests in support services that provide care as prevention, not punishment as reaction. Funding must be allocated to these services to increase operation hours to 24/7. This will shift the responsibility of responding to social and health needs away from police and towards the services set up to offer the right support during those critical times.
It’s time to re-think the response and put the money where the greatest impact is being made, into alternative first responders that centre care, not force.
References
- Brewster, A (July 2026) Queensland police take four hours to reach life-threatening domestic violence call-out [online]. ABC News. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-07-24/qld-domestic-violence-police-data/106955282
- Ibid.
- Ibid.
- National Justice Project (2025) Alternative First Responders Position Paper [online] Alternative First Responders. https://alternativefirstresponders.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AFR_PositionPaper2025.pdf
- Ibid.
- Beyond Survival Project, Flat Out and RMIT University (2025) Harm in the Name of Safety Report. [online] Flat Out Inc. https://www.flatout.org.au/resources/harm-in-the-name-of-safety
- Brewster, A (July 2026) Queensland police take four hours to reach life-threatening domestic violence call-out [online].ABC News. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-07-24/qld-domestic-violence-police-data/106955282
- Fragos, C. (November 2025) Alternative First Responders Symposium Report. [online] Alternative First Responders https://alternativefirstresponders.com.au/learn-with-us/
- Murri Watch (2026) Murri Watch Website [online] Murri Watch Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Corporation. https://murriwatch.org.au/
- Donohue, A. and Wangmann, J. (October 2025) Aboriginal Women’s Voices: There’s Power in That [online]. Mudgin-Gal Aboriginal Women’s Centre. https://www.mudgin-gal.org.au/about/mudgin-gal-yarns-podcast-and-reportngs
