Australia: Bikini model takes on cops she says perved on her file



A FORMER bikini model turned justice crusader whose police file was accessed more than 1400 times has asked the Crime and Corruption Commission to investigate.

Renee Eaves is also demanding an explanation from Queensland Police Service.

Ms Eaves, who won a harassment payout for an unlawful arrest case in 2011, has been a fierce critic of the QPS over a number of scandals.

She launched a Freedom of Information request last month to find out how many times officers had accessed her QPRIME file.

Essentially an online folder of personal information, access to QPRIME files is confined to officers in the duty of their job.

Officers could access the information after pulling over motorists for traffic matters or when they attend addresses on domestic violence matters for instance.

Many people would go through their lives with their file being accessed only a handful of times.

However, Ms Eaves, who says she has been guilty of nothing more than a few traffic offences over the years, says it beggars belief that police would need to access her file more than 1400 times in the past 10 years.

Officers accessed her information a staggering 1435 times from 2006 until as recently as last month.

Renee Eaves was crowned Miss Bikini World in 1999.

In the past, investigations have been conducted when officers have accessed certain information on no more than a handful of occasions.

Ms Eaves has written to the head of the QPS Ethical Standards Command demanding an explanation.

"It’s abuse of public office," she told The Courier-Mail. "They think that they can access my file whenever they like but they can’t. It’s a breach of privacy laws.

"They have taken action against one officer who accessed a file just once.

"They have accessed mine 1400 times so they are just taking the piss."

She wrote to Police Minister Bill Byrne, whose office said he could not intervene but suggested she could lodge a complaint with the CCC, which she has now also done.

Ms Eaves said some of the state’s top lawyers had told her the situation was nothing short of disgraceful.

"I’ve been told that some hardcore bikies or hardened criminals would not have had their records searched as often as I have," she said.

A former international bikini model, Ms Eaves was running a successful modelling agency on the Gold Coast when she was dragged from her home, heavily pregnant and arrested for an alleged traffic matter.

She took on the QPS for unlawful arrest and won a substantial payout.

Original report here



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