The Queensland Police Service was pleased to host the ‘Harassment - Don’t Cop It!’ Conference between 18 and 19 October 2007 at the Oaks North Quay hotel, Brisbane. This conference attracted 165 delegates from within the Queensland Police Service, government and non-government agencies.

This conference offered an insight into how the Queensland Police Service and other organisations are managing harassment issues and looked at future management strategies that could be applied to these organisation.

The Queensland Police Service is committed to an on-going process of continual improvement in its workplace policies, practices and behaviours concerning harassment and discrimination. The conference was an opportunity to share information which will seek to identify best practice strategies to manage the incidents of harassment in both government and non government organisations.

What was done

The first day was focused on the presentation of papers from a wide range of speakers. The speakers addressed:

• how harassment is being managed within organisation;
• what are the current and emerging issues;
• how harassment impacts on organisations;
• how we identify and manage individual and organisational behaviours, which contribute to harassment within the organisation; and
• any initiatives that may assist in the managing of harassment issues within an organisation.

The key note speaker on the first day was Ms Chris Ronalds SC who was responsible for the report entitled ‘Report of the Inquiry into Sexual Harassment and Sex Discrimination in the New South Wales Police’ to the Commissioner of the New South Wales Police Service.

The second day was conducted in a workshop format allowing for interaction between conference participants.  The focus was on the development of future proactive strategies – Future ‘Best Practice’ – How can we do things better.