THE Queensland Police Service has been recognised for its response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Taskforce Sierra Linnet, the service’s specialist COVID-19 response team, won a Premier’s Award for Excellence on Wednesday night.
The taskforce took home top honours in the ‘Keeping Communities Safe’ category.
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QPS said in a statement that the taskforce played a major role in government’s response to the COVID-19 public health emergency and lead a compliance regime of an “unprecedent nature, scale and duration.”
The taskforce was established on 2 February, 2020.
Commissioner Katarina Carroll said the QPS had and would continue to focus on providing support to the public health response through implementing, adapting and improving the operation response to the pandemic through an innovative compliance regime.
“The rapid and frequent changes to public health measures in place in Queensland have required extraordinary levels of responsibility and scalability from the taskforce to operationalise compliance activities,” Commissioner Carroll said.
“The low case numbers of COVID-19 in Queensland is a testament to the outstanding delivery and coordination of this team. This is not only a reflection of the QPS’ compliance activities, but also the hard work of healthcare and frontline workers and the Queensland community,” she said.
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“I would like to give my personal thanks, not only to our operational police working on the frontline to keep communities safe, but to our partner agencies and all Queenslanders who have followed the Chief Health Officer’s guidelines and supported us during this time.”
Commissioner Carroll said it was an incredible honour to receive the prestigious award alongside other exceptional public service initiatives.
Police Minister Mark Ryan praised the QPS for its work during a very challenging period.
“Queenslanders have witnessed yet again the professionalism of our world class police service,” Minister Ryan said.
“During a period unlike any other in our lifetimes, our police have been on the front line keeping the community safe. That’s what our police do, they keep the community safe,” he said.
The Premier’s Awards for Excellence recognise the work of individuals, initiatives and teams driving and implementing change across the Queensland public sector and state.
