Currently,the vast majority of police complaints are handled by Victoria Police directly.Credit:Eddie Jim
Yet despite a 2018 bi-partisan Parliamentary Committee report,a 2020 Royal Commission recommendation,a departmental review,a truth-telling justice commission andthe police’s own Chief Commissioner acknowledging its system is failing,the Victorian state government has made no significant change as to how complaints against the police are managed.
If you have a complaint about a bank you can go to the Australian Financial Complaints Authority. If you have a complaint about a hospital you can go to the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency. If you make a complaint about a lawyer you can go to the Legal Services Commissioner. Yet when it comes to police,with their unparalleled powers that can directly affect our liberty,physical safety and human rights,at least 98 per cent of Victorians will be dealt with by the same organisation they are complaining about.
Currently,people wanting to complain about Victoria Police can do so via the Independent Broad-Based Corruption Commission (IBAC) and also directly to Victoria Police. As it stands,though,IBAC handles just 1 to 2 per cent of all complaints made against police and refers the rest directly to Victoria Police for them to investigate internally. What’s more,Victoria Police does not publish any statistics about the outcomes of these complaints or investigations.
There is a growing call for an independent police ombudsman in Victoria,similar to the model adopted in Northern Ireland,where their complaint-centric ombudsman offers independent oversight and deals with all police complaints. These are all the things we desperately need in Victoria.
Loading
External police oversight is about ensuring Victorians have an independent body that they can make complaints about the police to if and when needed,and also involves monitoring police powers,audits of police systems and operations,and sometimes legal proceedings.
On September 4,2018,a Victorian Parliamentary Committee composed of members of the Liberal,Labor and Greens parties worked together to deliver a bi-partisan report on external police oversight.