 Specialist operations, okay well good morning everybody thanks for your attendance we just wanted to provide some information this morning about a trial that we are going to be conducting over the next 16 weeks of a load-bearing vest. You've already met our two participants here Sergeant Michael Hearn and Constable Julie Ryan who are presently trialling the vest. The vest is going to be trialled at a number of locations across Queensland both tropical and subtropical including Mount Isa, Cairns, Rockampton, Toowoomba, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast. Basically as you'll be aware some of these vests are in use in other police forces around Australia. We found of recent times that the amount of equipment that we're now giving our officers to carry is creating a bit of an issue in terms of space on the utility belt that we provide for them. So it's an issue of both space on the on the belt and also weight and with some of our officers who have smaller waist measurements the space on the belt has become a premium. So we're now trialling the use of a load-bearing vest to see if we can provide a better fit and a better weight bearing mechanism for our officers. So we'll be trialling as I said for the next 16 weeks after which we'll evaluate. We're going to trial two different sorts of vests. We have got 40 officers who have volunteered to participate in the trial. As you can see that'll be both male and female officers. At the end of the 16 weeks we'll do a formal evaluation which will include some focus group discussions, a questionnaire for the officers who've agreed to participate in the trial and also a live blog that we will have running with the participants to get their feedback on how they feel the vest is working. So well there's always an issue when you put any layer of clothing over there's always going to be an issue with heat and we're very conscious of that and that's one of the reasons that we want to trial it all across the state and while the trial will go over a four-month period so that we get access to both the warmer weather and then into the colder months so that the participants can give us some feedback about if there are any heat issues and if so if they're tolerable. Well cost is not you know particularly an issue for us is obviously a cost associated with every bit of equipment that we buy with our staff but can i say the cost will not be the determining factor here if we find at the end of the trial that they're a worthwhile addition and that they're a good addition to the health and safety of our people we will be purchasing them. Yeah look we don't have any plans to make the mandatory as such but if we go down the path of using these pieces of equipment we'll make them available to all officers who want them. You said it's based sorry it's at a premium now the Bells why is that? Well just the range of equipment that we now provide to our staff you know we've now got the firearm taser a baton handcuffs radio notebook so all of these things are we consider essential for officer safety we provide them to every officer and we want them to wear them so obviously with that say with the officers who have a smaller waist measurement it does become an issue of space. And just seeing um yes definitely from an officer's safety and training point of view we want to ensure that those most serious use of force options remain on the belt. Well as you can see some of the equipment that's there there is handcuffs there's a radio there's the baton and also there's a general purpose pouch on one side which they could use for carrying things like gloves face masks those sorts of first aid things or just for any any particular equipment that they want to carry in that space. Is there any problems with restriction of movement? Officers in a scuffle have to draw a firearm? No the way that the vests have been designed they there is no restriction on movement whatsoever and that's been the reports coming back from the field trials so far that the officers feel very comfortable with the fit of the garment and the fact that it provides no restriction whatsoever operationally. So in New South West Victoria there's not been one instance where officers said I got into the scuffle and my range was restricted? Well we have a project that's looking at the interstate comparisons we have been to the other jurisdictions and spoken to them got their experiences about the different models that they use and what the experiences have been of their officers on the front line so as far as I'm aware that has not been an issue but we'll obviously be conducting our own trials and get the feedback from our own people about whether they see this as a valuable addition to the equipment that we do provide for them. What are the main differences between certain models for the vane trial? The main difference is that one model essentially comes in a range of standard fittings in a small large medium whereas the other model is individually tailored and measured to the officer so it's a personal issue individually tailored that's the basic difference okay thank you very much sadly no no no good news to report there there's obviously a very intensive search going on for him and we're hopeful that that will end well but at this stage and I have no good news to report. Well you know the circumstances of him leaving the home would suggest that there's there's no reason to suggest that there's necessarily going to be a bad outcome we think he's just left of his own accord and he might want not to return for his own reasons for a while we hope that he's safe and hidden somewhere but we obviously have a very significant search underway and we hope that we find him very quickly