It has come to my attention this morning that there was a significant email privacy breach by a well meaning Queensland Police Officer. 

I received a phone call from a concerned customer who informed me that he received an email from a Police Officer with the subject of: Weapons Audits at 0838hrs today, January 13th, 2021. 

The body of the email was a warning to licenced firearms owners reproduced below in full

Dear Weapons Licence Holder,

Recently there have been a number of break and enters within the Moreton Police District where a substantial number of firearms were stolen.

We are taking this time to send you a friendly reminder of your obligations under the Weapons Act about correct storage of your weapons and to provide you with some tips to assist in keeping your firearms safe. 

A brochure is attached outlining the legislation and requirements. Below is some further information for you to assist in keeping our community safe from firearms on the street and from getting into the wrong hands. 

– Don’t leave tools around that will aid an offender in opening or removing your safe.

– Don’t make it public knowledge that you possess firearms. 

– If you are a member of a shooting club be aware of your surrounding when leaving the range. Be aware of persons who may be following you to your residence.

– Don’t store your safe keys near your safe.

– Report any theft to police immediately.

– Consider installing a CCTV camera at your house or at least near your safe.

Further information around safe storage of weapons and ammunition can be found here. 

Police from Moreton District will be conducting weapons licencing audits in the coming months so take some time and read the information and ensure you have everything in order.

For further information on crime prevention go to

https://www.police.qld.gov.au/safety-and-preventi…

For a crime happening NOW please call triple zero. For non-urgent reporting or police contact please call Police Link on 131 444. If you have any information that can assist police and wish to report that information anonymously contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000

Thank you in anticipation of your support in making Moreton District a safer place to live.

Now that is pretty straight forward and great to see some pro-active policing, however…

This email was sent to: 460 people (see below redacted image)

The Officer from Moreton – Crime Prevention Co-Ordination sent the email to 460 firearms owners from the Moreton Bay region. Not once, but twice.  

The email was quickly retracted, but there is every chance quite a few on the list had already downloaded the message and are in possession of a whole heap of licenced firearms owners email contact information as I am.

The below email was received by recipients later in the day

Image Courtesy of Firearm Owners United

It was a mistake. Plain and simple.

I am going to make some enquiries of Weapons Licencing as to how it was possible for a Local Policing Command to be able to access or enquire upon this information and then share something like this publicly, 

I will keep you all updated.

To anyone that received this email, I’d love to hear from you and please, delete the email after forwarding it to privacy@police.qld.gov.au to register a complaint. 

Privacy in this day and age is of utmost importance. 

The warning within the email itself was quite clear “Don’t make it public knowledge that you possess firearms”

More to come