Inappropriate Customer Behaviour

QPS Right to Information and Privacy Services is committed to fair, accessible and responsive service.  When a person approaches us with a request, application or enquiry our staff do their best to assist them with their enquiry as quickly as possible.

We recognise that people contacting the QPS Right to Information and Privacy Services may be stressed, frustrated or upset; and that people who contact QPS Right to Information and Privacy Services have diverse backgrounds and needs.

What we ask of you

Please be courteous - we ask that you communicate respectfully.  Our staff deserve a safe working environment.  Abusive, threatening, discriminatory or offensive communication and behaviour will not be tolerated.

Please be clear - we can assist you more easily if we can understand why you are contacting us and the information you are seeking.  We may need to ask you questions in order to best assist you.

Please give us time to respond - sometimes it can take a little while for us to provide you with the information you need.  We value your enquiry and want to provide both a timely and accurate response.  It can be confusing when people contact us via several different channels about the same matter.  This can slow down our ability to respond to you.

Please be understanding - we are sometimes limited in the amount of information we can provide due to our responsibilities under the Right to Information Act 2009 (RTI Act) and the Information Privacy Act 2009 (IP Act).  We provide as much information as we are able to.  However, due to privacy and confidentiality there are some things that we cannot discuss.  We will likely confirm your identity at the start of an interaction to protect your privacy.

Abusive or aggressive behaviour will not be tolerated

We do not tolerate behaviour that is offensive, abusive or threatening.

Abusive or aggressive behaviour may include:

• Rude or otherwise vulgar expressions, noises or gestures.
• Verbal abuse of a personal nature, or against a particular subset of society.
• Threatening or offensive behaviour.
• Threats of physical violence against a person or property.

Where this is the case, we may take steps to reduce any detrimental impact of such behaviour on our staff, and QPS RTI and Privacy Services' productivity and resources.

These steps may include:

• Clearly warning the customer that if the unacceptable behaviour continues, the interaction may be terminated.
• Terminating the interaction if the unreasonable behaviour continues after a clear warning has been given.