Offences against police in Queensland

The two main charges

Section 790 PPRA, assault or obstruct police. Obstruct is defined broadly and includes hinder, resist, and attempt to obstruct. Pulling your arm away during an arrest, standing between an officer and another person, or giving a false name can all be charged as obstruct.

Section 340 Criminal Code, serious assault. Used where there is an actual assault on a police officer acting in the execution of duty, or on someone helping an officer. The maximum is 7 years, rising to 14 years where the offender is or pretends to be armed, is in company, causes bodily harm, or bites or spits on the officer or applies a bodily fluid or faeces to them.

Section 340 also protects public officers, people aged 60 or over, and people who rely on a guide, hearing or assistance dog, wheelchair or other remedial device.

Lawful execution of duty is the pressure point

Both offences require the officer to have been acting in the lawful performance or execution of their duty. If the officer was doing something they had no power to do, the element fails, and the charge fails with it.

That question comes up constantly, because Queensland police powers are conditional. Common examples:

• A search conducted without a warrant where the prescribed circumstances in section 29 or section 31 of the PPRA were not present.
• A move on direction given without the officer stating the reason, or on a ground not in section 46.
• An arrest where section 365 did not authorise arrest rather than a notice to appear.
• A demand for name and address where the officer did not have the reasonable suspicion section 40 requires, and did not warn that failure to comply is an offence.

You are entitled to resist an unlawful arrest to a reasonable degree, though doing so is a very high risk approach in practice. The better course is to comply at the scene and challenge the lawfulness in court.

Get the footage

Queensland police wear body worn cameras and are required to activate them for most operational interactions. The footage is the single most important piece of evidence in these matters and it must be requested through the prosecution as part of disclosure under section 590AB of the Criminal Code.

What the footage regularly shows: an interaction far shorter and calmer than described, a direction never actually given, an officer initiating physical contact first, or an obstruction that lasted two seconds. It also sometimes shows the opposite, and knowing that early is worth just as much when you are deciding whether to plead.

Ask for the footage before entering any plea. Requesting it takes a mention or two, and no magistrate refuses an adjournment for that purpose.

Sentencing and the conviction question

For a first section 790 obstruct charge with no injury, the usual outcome is a fine, and no conviction recorded is realistically achievable under section 12 of the Penalties and Sentences Act 1992 (Qld).

Section 340 is treated far more seriously. Spitting on or biting an officer attracts the aggravated 14 year maximum and courts impose actual imprisonment for it more often than the objective seriousness might suggest, because of the deterrent policy Parliament attached to the provision. Where the offence was committed while adversely affected by alcohol or drugs in a public place, a community service order is generally mandatory under section 108B.

A conviction for an offence against police is disqualifying for security licences and problematic for firearms licensing and some visas. If any of those apply to you, the section 12 argument needs evidence, not assertion.