Qld. police undermine attempted political coverup

POLICE have apologised for failing to respond to a family's panicked triple zero call despite the Police Minister's claim their story was "total rubbish".

Dennis Trovas and his partner Kylie rang 000 on Saturday night after a confrontation in their front yard at Morningside with a gang of up to 30 aggressive and drunken youths. It was the third time the couple, who have three young sons, had been troubled by the gang but the first time they had called 000.

When no one arrived to deal with their complaint, they called police again and were told to follow up the matter at their local station on Monday morning.

Although police told The Courier-Mail a crew was sent, they said it had been diverted to another job believed to involve the same youths and the officers never responded to that particular call.

When questioned about the incident on radio yesterday, Police Minister Neil Roberts said it was "total rubbish" that a police crew did not respond and claimed officers had gone to Mr Trovas's address after his second phone call at midnight but there was no answer. Meanwhile Mr Trovas said he and Kylie waited up until 1.30am and nobody came.

Yesterday, Kylie said they were disappointed to hear Mr Roberts' account of their experience on radio. "I contacted his office after that, and gave him the correct information," she said.

A senior officer from Morningside then rang the family yesterday afternoon and apologised, said Kylie. "He was very nice and we had a big chat. It seems like it was a mix up in communications from the 000 centre," she said.

However a Policelink employee who contacted The Courier-Mail said police simply did not have the resources to respond to the callout. "It's an out and out case of not having the numbers. It happens every Friday and Saturday night," he said.

SOURCE