The Queensland Police Service has announced it will allow retired officers to return to the front lines under a new relief pool — but an experienced detective says they are shutting out experienced officers.
The returning officers would be employed as casuals on an ad hoc basis to boost resources in times of need.
Commissioner Katarina Carroll said the concept was already in place in other government agencies.
"Our goal would be to attract healthy and committed former officers who could undergo the necessary assessments and re-training to be sworn in as special constables to carry out a range of policing duties when required," she said.
Commissioner Carroll said the role will be capped at senior constable and "bolster the frontline".
The service has a mandatory retirement age of 60, regardless of whether the individual would like to continue working.
Commissioner Carroll said more than 850 police officers will leave through mandatory retirement by 2026 — 178 officers in the next 12 months, 62 of which are currently performing frontline duties
One of those officers forced into retirement is Detective Inspector Jon Rouse.
After 39 years with Queensland Police, Detective Inspector Rouse, who dedicated his career to the protection of children, will retire in June.
"I think every single year we as an organisation, we're in many cases pushing a lot of experience out the door unnecessarily, there's lots of people who can quite capably continue working past 60 up to 65," he said.
"I think most law enforcement officers would welcome the opportunity to continue serving the community, which is a good thing."
'We're being discriminated against'
Detective Inspector Rouse said while this announcement is encouraging, it doesn't take advantage of expertise.
"I wouldn't say that I'm not physically capable of performing frontline duties, but I would suggest that my skill set could be better utilised than that," he said.
"It's fundamentally discrimination … we're being discriminated against because of our age."
For the past 18 years Detective Inspector Rouse has been a part of the INTERPOL Covert Internet Investigators Group, at the forefront of international policing of child exploitation.
He chaired the body for the past two years and travelled to France annually to meet with the group.
But to hold that position, he must be a serving Queensland Police Officer.
"I can hand on heart tell you that it was a really sad moment handing over my chair of the specialist group," he said.
"Particularly because it was only my second year as the chair and when I started going to that meeting I looked up to the chairs.
"To finally get a chair position and have it for two years, I would've loved to have kept that role for several more years to help guide the expert group on the area of covert internet investigations, but my age forcing me to retire has forced me to then hand over my chair at INTERPOL."
While he doesn't believe you should be required to stay on after the age of 60, Detective Inspector Rouse believes officers should have a choice.
"I've said openly that my disappointment with mandatory retirement is that I don't get a choice, it may well be that after 39 years I've had enough, that's a long time.
"But I'd like to have the choice about whether I've finished and whether I've got more to give, that's probably my only regret about the policy that was in place."
He said the service should be leaning on the experience of older officers rather than throwing them out.
"In 39 years, you do build up a lot of networks, a lot of connectivity you've learnt a lot from mistakes over the years that can help guide an organisation."
