A new recruitment policy by the Queensland Police Service is under fire for going against recommendations made in the Fitzgerald Inquiry.

The minimum age for applicants was last month reduced to allow 17-year-olds to apply for the service during Year 12.

But the University of Melbourne’s Professor Heather Douglas told the Commission of Inquiry into Police Responses to Domestic and Family Violence she doesn’t agree with the push.

“I accept that some things have changed but I think there’s a real cultural problem within the police,” she said.

“I think that these [issues] have not been addressed to the standard that Fitzgerald would have hoped.”

Expanding on her concerns on Brisbane Live, Professor Douglas says she believed it was “really risky” and problematic to introduce younger recruits.

“Most of the work we know that police do is incredibly complex, and increasingly they are involved in cases involving domestic violence, cases involving mental health issues, this is hard work that police do.

“They need to appreciate all of the social, psychological, legal issues which are really intrinsic to their work.”

She says it’s a complex role and police needed to exercise “complex judgement”.

“I think bringing 17, 18 year olds into that environment, fresh out f high school is not considered by experts who have looked at this for many ideas, a good idea.”

Press PLAY below to hear her explain why she believes it’s so problematic

The Fitzgerald Inquiry observed in 1989 the recruitment of school leavers facilitated “inflexible and outdated” views among police ranks.

“When they join the Force, they enter an insular environment where they work and socialize almost exclusively with their colleagues,” Tony Fitzgerald wrote.

“Their experience of the broader society is therefore not widened greatly. Contact with members of the public tends to be in situations of distress, conflict and hostility. 

“Police therefore tend to retain the view and attitudes they brought into the Force, in so far as these are compatible with (or reinforced by) police culture.”

The Fitzgerald Report recommended the phasing out of the cadet system that targeted school leavers.

Ms Douglas argued decades on, there is more cultural change needed among police ranks and bringing young recruits into the service will not help.

“If we’re going to go in a new direction with the police and improve the responses to domestic and family violence, the right way isn’t to go backwards in terms of recruitment,” she said.

Image: Getty