Tim Prenzler
Biographic Data
| ID | 3075467 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Tim Prenzler |
| GIVEN NAMES | Tim |
| FAMILY NAME | Prenzler |
| SIGNATURE | PRENZLER T |
| AFFILIATIONS | Griffith University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-1635-1919 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 56 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 71 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 56 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1992 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
De Facto Mental Health Responders: A Contemporary Systematic Literature Review of Police Encounters with Persons Experiencing Mental Illness
Police are often becoming primary responders to people experiencing mental illness (PMI), frequently managing crises that fall outside traditional law enforcement roles. Police-PMI encounters are complex, resource-intensive, and often associated with adverse outcomes. Yet the evidence base on how such interactions occur and what influences their outcomes lacks a comprehensive understanding. To address this gap, a systematic literature review was …
Ethical Issues and Scandals in Australian Federal Politics, 2013-2024: Lessons for Combatting Grey Corruption
The Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland: A model agency for managing complaints against police and optimising police integrity
A review of restorative justice programmes for First Nations Peoples in Queensland
This paper reports on the development and implementation of restorative justice policy and practice for First Nations Peoples in Queensland. Using diverse public source materials to produce a summary history and assessment of the Queensland experience, the study found that restorative justice can provide an appropriate response to crime within First Nations communities, but that programmes have had limited application and utilisation to-date. The…
Preventing Crime and Disorder in Public Places: Blending Opportunity Reduction, Guardianship and Welfare
A review of the impacts of Business Improvement Districts on crime and disorder
Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) are an initiative adopted by some local governments, businesses, and residents to address concerns around crime and disorder in commercial areas, especially open street town centres. BIDs have become popular in the USA since the 1970s; however, no comprehensive review of evaluations has occurred to date. This paper systematically reviewed the academic literature to find 13 BID evaluations. These studies were …
Australia’s New National Anti-Corruption Commission: Background and Critique
Australia has been the site of major advances in the creation of public sector anticorruption commissions since 1989. However, commissions with broad jurisdiction have been limited to the six states until 2023. The federal jurisdiction lagged behind, with a series of scandals driving intensified debates from 2013. Performance issues associated with state agencies formed part of the debate. The present paper reviews this history, focusing on the i…
Restorative justice as diversion for adult offenders in Queensland, 1990–2021
This article provides a summary history and critique of the Queensland experience of restorative justice for adult offenders, with a focus on policy development and program implementation. It aims to identify key lessons to improve policy and implementation that may be transferrable to similar jurisdictions. Public source material was analysed to identify significant moments of change, including the launch of programs, the political rhetoric and …
Reforming Queensland’s police complaints system: Recent inquiries and the prospects of a best practice model
This paper critiques three recent inquiries and recommended changes in practice around the management of complaints against police in the state of Queensland, Australia, with a view to advancing a best practice model internationally. A civilian oversight system, closely aligned to a ‘civilian control’ model, was introduced in Queensland as part of a reform program following the 1989 Fitzgerald Inquiry into police corruption. However, external con…
Mediation of complaints against police: A review of programs in Los Angeles and New York City
The investigation of complaints against the police is important to law, order and justice. The public expects high ethical standards from its police service and when breaches occur, complaints often follow. How the police respond to complaints can influence the trust and confidence that underpins the civilian-police relationship. This paper examines some of the key issues faced by police services in the management of complaints and reviews the ef…
The evolution of youth justice conferencing in Queensland, 1990–2021
This paper provides a summary history and critique of the development and implementation of restorative justice in the Queensland youth justice system through an analysis of official data and documentary sources. The paper focuses on policy changes, including government responses to program reviews, issues regarding the availability of conferencing, connections between conferencing and prevention and program transparency and accountability. The s…
Innovation and transparency in the recruitment of women in Australian Policing
This paper reviews developments in gender equity-oriented recruitment policies in Australian policing between 2015 and 2019. Findings cover the six state, one federal and one territory police departments. The study was prompted by media reports on affirmative action initiatives, especially the introduction of recruitment targets. The primary aim was to identify successful or promising strategies to increase the number of female officers, with pos…
Alternative dispute resolution and mediation of complaints against police in Australia and New Zealand
This study assessed the role of alternative dispute resolution options in the complaints management systems of the eight policing jurisdictions in Australia and the single jurisdiction of New Zealand. The available literature shows that a large proportion of complainants would like to participate in mediation, and that both complainants and police who experience mediation report much higher rates of satisfaction than those experiencing traditiona…
Remarks by the guest editor
A long time ago in early-1991 I was very excited to obtain my first academic job teaching social issues and professional ethics to police recruits in a new combined academy-university training program that was part of a major anti-corruption reform package in the state of Queensland Australia. I have to admit that my expectations of my students were of young six-foot males of uniform appearance. To my surprise, one-third of the classes was female…
Ten key developments in modern policing: An Australian perspective
In this paper we endeavour to isolate the top ten innovations and developments that have occurred in policing in the last thirty years. We consider that each of them brought about a new mindset, pattern or trend into contemporary police practice. We have focused our attention on the last thirty years because it is during this time that we have both maintained a keen academic interest in the field. While we have focused our attention on the way in…
Complaint reduction in Australian federal policing in the Australian Capital Territory
Across fifteen years to 2015–2016 the rate of public complaints against police in the Australian Capital Territory fell by an extraordinary 79%. This was a much larger and longer-term reduction in complaints than occurred anywhere else in Australia, and it is very unusual in the international policing literature. The paper attempts to examine the nature of this change in greater detail, and possible factors that may have influenced the change. Un…
Policing in Hong Kong: History and reform
This book provides a fascinating account of the evolution of what is considered to be the first modern police force in Asia, established by the British in 1844. Policing in Hong Kong: history and r
Reforming security industry training standards: An Australian case study
This article critiques recent developments in training in the Australian security industry. Regulation of the industry is state- and territory-based, with eight jurisdictions enacting purpose-built legislation. Training was a key area of reform in the 1990s and early 2000s, but standards remained fragmented until 2008 when the Committee of Australian Governments agreed on a national competency framework to be implemented by 2010. However, despite…
Welfare fraud prevention in Australia: A follow-up study
Police officer gender and excessive force complaints: An Australian study
Issues of force and excessive force remain prominent in policing in most jurisdictions. This study addresses the relationship between officer gender and force-related allegations, and adds to the growing literature on women in policing and strategies to reduce police-citizen conflict. The study utilised six years of Queensland police data from 2007/2008 to 2012/2013 involving 4974 force-related complaint files and 11,493 allegations, to explore g…
Reconciling stakeholder interests in police complaints and discipline systems
This article summarizes surveys of three key stakeholder groups in the police complaints and discipline process: the public, complainants and police. In general, public and complainant surveys showed strong support for independent processing of complaints. Complainants were generally deeply dissatisfied with police-dominated and mixed (police/independent) systems. Police experiences and views regarding complaints systems were divergent, but with …
Understanding and Preventing Corruption
This readily accessible guide addresses key issues in the international problem of public and private sector corruption. Despite the growth in interest of corruption in government and politics, few studies have focused on the practical questions of how to combat corruption. Graycar and Prenzler address these deficits by connecting analyses about the nature and causes of corruption with strategies for effective corruption reduction.Using a variety…
The Status of Indigenous Women in Policing: A Queensland Case Study
A key recommendation of the 1991 report of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody was the employment of more Indigenous police officers, especially women, in part as a strategy to reduce the over-representation of Indigenous people in the criminal justice system. This article examines the working out of this recommendation in the Queensland Police Service by analysing the Indigenous employment process and by surveying 56 Indigenou…
The status of women police officers: An international review
Women Police in Post‐Fitzgerald Queensland: A 20 Year Review
The Fitzgerald report was the catalyst for major reforms to Queensland's system of government and criminal justice, and included explicit recommendations related to women in policing. Reforms led to the removal of discriminatory barriers and significant improvements in the recruitment and promotion of women. However, these changes provoked a backlash in the 1990s that led to reductions in female recruitment. A return to less discriminatory polici…
Models of police oversight: A critique
This is a theoretical paper that addresses the question: What is the best form of control of police conduct? The paper cites the inadequacy of traditional mechanisms such as accountability to the law and elected officials; and focuses on the current debate, which divides primarily over the division of labour between internal affairs and a specialised external agency. Recourse to external agencies can be divided into two further models. ‘Civilian …
Civilian Oversight of Police
Many jurisdictions have created external oversight bodies for police following problems of recurring misconduct and the failure of internal control mechanisms. Questions inevitably follow about the effectiveness of the new bodies to detect and prevent abuses of power. One potential source of ineffectiveness is undue influence or‘capture’ by police. This paper reviews developments in external oversight internationally and examines the issue of cap…
The Regulation of Private Policing: Reviewing Mechanisms of Accountability
Is There a Police Culture
Recent commissions of inquiry and the growth of police studies in Australia have popularised the idea of a ‘police culture’. A stereotyped image has developed of police sexism, racism, secrecy, anti‐intellectualism, brutality, corruption, biased law enforcement and politicisation. The alleged ‘police culture’ is at odds with every fundamental ethical principle of public service. In its simplified version the concept is becoming discredited as exc…
The evolution of police oversight in Australia
This paper reviews developments in police oversight in the last decade in Australia's eight jurisdictions. Significant variation remains in the structure and responsibilities of oversight agencies, but there has been an ongoing trend towards replacing an ombudsman model with a public sector-wide commission model. There has also been a general convergence in terms of increased powers and an enlarged range of anti-corruption tactics. Change has bee…
Performance Indicators for Police Oversight Agencies
This study addresses the question of performance indicators for police oversight agencies through a survey of the directors of agencies in Australia and an analysis of annual reports. The findings show that a variety of targets and measures are in place. The majority of oversight bodies adopt fairly basic and largely quantitative measures on matters processed, supplemented by case study accounts of positive impacts
Police officer gender and excessive force complaints: An Australian study
Issues of force and excessive force remain prominent in policing in most jurisdictions. This study addresses the relationship between officer gender and force-related allegations, and adds to the growing literature on women in policing and strategies to reduce police-citizen conflict. The study utilised six years of Queensland police data from 2007/2008 to 2012/2013 involving 4974 force-related complaint files and 11,493 allegations, to explore g…
Towards a Model Public Sector Integrity Commission
This article examines the current debate in Australia about public sector integrity and the idea of a standing anticorruption commission. From this debate the article outlines a specific type of ‘public sector integrity commission’ that in principle should have the necessary powers and techniques at its disposal to minimise corruption while ensuring efficiency and fairness. The debate has been most active in jurisdictions that have not had an ant…
The influence of gratuities and personal relationships on police use of discretion
This paper reports on a survey of police officers in Queensland, Australia, regarding their responses to a scenario in which an officer is confronted with a traffic violation by a café proprietor who has given the officer free food and drinks. The majority of respondents supported the option of not giving the driver a traffic offence notice and related their choice to the influence of the personal relationship with the offender. This preference i…
Police oversight in the United Kingdom: The balance of independence and collaboration
Australia’s New National Anti-Corruption Commission: Background and Critique
Australia has been the site of major advances in the creation of public sector anticorruption commissions since 1989. However, commissions with broad jurisdiction have been limited to the six states until 2023. The federal jurisdiction lagged behind, with a series of scandals driving intensified debates from 2013. Performance issues associated with state agencies formed part of the debate. The present paper reviews this history, focusing on the i…
Welfare fraud prevention in Australia: A follow-up study
The status of women police officers: An international review
La sécurité privée et le problème de la confiance: L’expérience Australienne
The private security industry in Australia, as in many jurisdictions, has been beset by allegations of fraud, abuse of powers and incompetence. These problems are illustrated through trade practices, prosecutions, government inquiries, incident reports and other sources. Causation is analysed in terms of Shapiro's (1987) formulation of the problem of "policing trust". The substantial delegation of responsibility entailed in security work makes it…
The relationship between police and private security: Models and future directions
This is a theory and policy paper designed to facilitate debate about the emerging and evolving relationship between the public and private policing sectors. The so‐called pluralization of policing is gathering momentum. New models are required that take into account the blurring of what have been conventionally considered parallel systems, with private security as very much the ‘'lesser'’ or junior entity. The paper introduces a number of Austra…
Blue tunics and batons: Women and politics in the Queensland police, 1970–1987
During the 1970s and 1980s, policewomen in Queensland experienced dramatic changes of fortune under two different commissioners. Under Commissioner Whitrod (1970-76), the percentage of policewomen went from below the Australian national\naverage to twice the national average, and women were integrated into general duties and the seniority list. Women in Queensland began entering policing in large numbers at a time when those in overseas jurisdict…
Women in Australian policing: An historical overview
The entry of women into policing in Australia and the achievement of legal equality have been described by one policewoman as 'a long hard struggle'.' The marginalisation experienced by policewomen has also been reflected in Australian historical studies. Most histories of police in Australia give little or no space to issues of female participation. More critical, sociologically-based studies have also tended to perpetuate the assumption that 'p…
The Influence of Religion on Australian Political Behaviour
Women in Australian policing: An historical overview
The entry of women into policing in Australia and the achievement of legal equality have been described by one policewoman as 'a long hard struggle'.' The marginalisation experienced by policewomen has also been reflected in Australian historical studies. Most histories of police in Australia give little or no space to issues of female participation. More critical, sociologically-based studies have also tended to perpetuate the assumption that 'p…
Recent Writing on the History of Religion in Australia: A Critique
Enter an established seminary of any mainstream church and ask to see the room where graduation photos are displayed. There in the shrinking classes, the ranks dwindling to a handful in the 1980s, is one of the most poignant records of the decline of religion in Australia. Whether this change is seen as the march of reason or a loss of soul, many would find it hard not to sense pathos here in the clear images of some great cause in decline. What …
Police studies, the university and the police service: An Australian study
The professional preparation of police in universities is a recent development in Australia. In many cases, however, the university contribution is attenuated; degree completion is voluntary after entry into the police service. Nevertheless, it is now accepted that police services in the future will be staffed increasingly by graduates. This study examines the impact of these developments through a survey of police educators in Australian univers…
Rebuilding the Walls? The Impact of Police Pre-Entry Physical Ability Tests on Female Applicants
In the comedy movie Copl/2 a hard bitten detective played by Burt Reynolds pursues a suspect who is fleeing on foot. The detective follows in a car until the suspect climbs over a high fence and disappears. The overweight and lazy detective clambers out of the car and makes a half-hearted attempt to scale the fence, but his paunch gets in the way. He then gets back in the car and drives straight through the fence and a second fence before corneri…
Officer Perspectives on Community Policing
A survey of Queensland police officers showed strong support for community policing. However, there was disagreement about its meaning, use and impact; and the concept tended to be interpreted in terms of police-public relations. Dissonance was evident between officers' perceptions of high levels of Queensland Police Service involvement in community policing and low levels of respondent involvement. Perceptions of improved relations between the S…
Blue tunics and batons: Women and politics in the Queensland police, 1970–1987
During the 1970s and 1980s, policewomen in Queensland experienced dramatic changes of fortune under two different commissioners. Under Commissioner Whitrod (1970-76), the percentage of policewomen went from below the Australian national\naverage to twice the national average, and women were integrated into general duties and the seniority list. Women in Queensland began entering policing in large numbers at a time when those in overseas jurisdict…
Is There a Police Culture
Recent commissions of inquiry and the growth of police studies in Australia have popularised the idea of a ‘police culture’. A stereotyped image has developed of police sexism, racism, secrecy, anti‐intellectualism, brutality, corruption, biased law enforcement and politicisation. The alleged ‘police culture’ is at odds with every fundamental ethical principle of public service. In its simplified version the concept is becoming discredited as exc…
Quality Control and Contracting Out of Legal Aid
This article reports on an evaluation of a pilot project in the tendering out of legal aid defence services for criminal matters in the Queensland District Court. Comparisons were made on quality and cost between the assignment of matters through competitive contracting and conventional assignment to private practitioners through a panel and scale fee system. Results show no significant differences in case outcomes and client perceptions of quali…
Restorative Justice and Community Conferencing: Summary of Findings from a Pilot Study
(1998). Restorative Justice and Community Conferencing: Summary of Findings from a Pilot Study. Current Issues in Criminal Justice: Vol. 10, No. 2, pp. 138-155
The Prospects for Burglary Prevention in Australia
This article reviews the extent, costs and causes of burglary; and reports on both successful and unsuccessful anti-burglary strategies. Burglary prevention is possible, but in Australia the prospects for major reductions are extremely poor. Current social trends are almost all criminogenic for this type of crime. Opportunities in the built environment are facilitated by increasing prosperity, increasing population densities and residential mobil…
The Regulation of Private Policing: Reviewing Mechanisms of Accountability
The influence of gratuities and personal relationships on police use of discretion
This paper reports on a survey of police officers in Queensland, Australia, regarding their responses to a scenario in which an officer is confronted with a traffic violation by a café proprietor who has given the officer free food and drinks. The majority of respondents supported the option of not giving the driver a traffic offence notice and related their choice to the influence of the personal relationship with the offender. This preference i…
Measuring Progress in Gender Equity in Australian Policing
This paper reports on a survey of police agencies in Australia regarding key indicators of gender equity. The survey was designed to identify the nature of change in the last decade and to test the capacity of senior management to evaluate performance. Marked differences were found between agencies in achieving progress and these differences indicated that management policies strongly influenced outcomes. It was also apparent that a greater commi…
Civilian Oversight of Police
Many jurisdictions have created external oversight bodies for police following problems of recurring misconduct and the failure of internal control mechanisms. Questions inevitably follow about the effectiveness of the new bodies to detect and prevent abuses of power. One potential source of ineffectiveness is undue influence or‘capture’ by police. This paper reviews developments in external oversight internationally and examines the issue of cap…
The relationship between police and private security: Models and future directions
This is a theory and policy paper designed to facilitate debate about the emerging and evolving relationship between the public and private policing sectors. The so‐called pluralization of policing is gathering momentum. New models are required that take into account the blurring of what have been conventionally considered parallel systems, with private security as very much the ‘'lesser'’ or junior entity. The paper introduces a number of Austra…
Models of police oversight: A critique
This is a theoretical paper that addresses the question: What is the best form of control of police conduct? The paper cites the inadequacy of traditional mechanisms such as accountability to the law and elected officials; and focuses on the current debate, which divides primarily over the division of labour between internal affairs and a specialised external agency. Recourse to external agencies can be divided into two further models. ‘Civilian …
A survey of innovations in the development and maintenance of ethical standards by australian police departments
This paper examines Australian responses to the problem of police misconduct in terms of three models of integrity development: minimalist, intermediate and advanced. A survey was conducted of the eight main police departments in order to identify current strategies to prevent corruption and maximize ethical conduct. The survey found a variety of innovative programmes in operation including targeted integrity testing, drug and alcohol testing, an…
Chief Commissioner Christine Nixon, Victoria: Australia's first female police chief
In 2001, Christine Nixon made history by becoming Australia's first female police commissioner, 85 years after the appointment of the first female police and following decades of extreme discrimination against women in police work. She is now Chief Commissioner of the Victoria Police Force, which has 12,800 personnel, including 9,700 sworn officers, in a state with a population of 4.6 million. Christine joined the New South Wales (NSW) Police in …
Guest Editor's Introduction
Tertiary education, commitment, and turnover in police work
This study investigated the effects of tertiary education on police turnover (separations) and job attitudes. It is sometimes argued that tertiary education will reduce the commitment of police to staying in the job because they will experience frustrated promotional aspirations and they possess greater employment mobility. In a case study of Queensland police officers with between five and nine years of service, human resource data showed no sig…
Performance Indicators for Police Oversight Agencies
This study addresses the question of performance indicators for police oversight agencies through a survey of the directors of agencies in Australia and an analysis of annual reports. The findings show that a variety of targets and measures are in place. The majority of oversight bodies adopt fairly basic and largely quantitative measures on matters processed, supplemented by case study accounts of positive impacts
La sécurité privée et le problème de la confiance: L’expérience Australienne
The private security industry in Australia, as in many jurisdictions, has been beset by allegations of fraud, abuse of powers and incompetence. These problems are illustrated through trade practices, prosecutions, government inquiries, incident reports and other sources. Causation is analysed in terms of Shapiro's (1987) formulation of the problem of "policing trust". The substantial delegation of responsibility entailed in security work makes it…
Towards Prevention: A Situational Study of Police Deaths on Duty in Queensland
Research findings from a study of 45 police deaths on duty in the state of Queensland since 1950 are presented and this research identified situational variables that appear amenable to preventive efforts, with direct practical application in the development of protective measures for frontline officers. The findings show the need for an extremely cautious and meticulously planned approach by police to specific high-risk situations such as raids,…
Police Corruption: Preventing Misconduct and Maintaining Integrity
While many police officers undertake their work conforming to the highest ethical standards, the fact remains that unethical police conduct continues to be a recurring problem around the world. With examples from a range of jurisdictions, Police Corruption: Preventing Misconduct and Maintaining Integrity examines the causes of police misconduct and
Political science (51 works) · Law (44 works) · Policing Practices and Perceptions (37 works) · Sociology (31 works) · Criminology (30 works) · Public relations (27 works) · Crime Patterns and Interventions (26 works) · Law (26 works) · Business (23 works) · Psychology (23 works)