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Date: April 29, 2024 Mon
Time: 8:25 pm
Time: 8:25 pm
Results for police force
2 results foundAuthor: Law Enforcement Conduct Commission Title: Review of 29 NSW Police Forced Critical Incident Investigations Summary: A critical incident is an incident involving a police operation that results in death or serious injury to a person. The NSW Police Force is required to investigate the actions of its members involved in a critical incident. The Law Enforcement Conduct Commission ('the Commission') monitors the investigation of critical incidents from the time of the incident until the completion of the investigation by police, to provide assurance to the public that police investigations into critical incidents are conducted in a competent, thorough and objective manner. The NSW Police Force has guidelines in place which set out how police are to conduct critical incident investigations, including how the investigations should be documented. When the Commission commenced operations in July 2017, the NSW Police Force already had a number of critical incident investigations on foot. We decided to review 29 of those critical incident investigations (also known as strike forces). The purpose of our review was to - (1) measure and benchmark compliance by the NSW Police Force with their critical incident guidelines; (2) establish whether the finalisation of certain critical incident investigations has been unreasonably delayed by the NSW Police Force; (3) identify whether there had been any agency maladministration in relation to compliance and delay issues; and (4) make recommendations to the NSW Police Force to increase compliance with critical incident guidelines, reduce delays in finalising matters, and prevent misconduct and maladministration. One of the first issues we identified was that some key investigation records could not be located in the NSW Police Force investigations management system. This system is where police are required to keep all documents created as a result of critical incident investigations. The absence of records impacted on our ability to properly assess compliance of the NSW Police Force with some of the procedural requirements set out in its critical incident guidelines. Clearly it would also inhibit the NSW Police Force’s own capacity to ensure the critical incident guidelines are being followed. Our review also identified very low levels of compliance by the NSW Police Force in relation to two key procedural requirements of the guidelines. These were the requirement to conduct mandatory alcohol testing within desired timeframes of two hours and the requirement to prepare an interim report prior to the completion of a coronial inquest. The Commission also identified a number of investigations where it appeared that there may have been unreasonable delays on the part of the NSW Police Force in finalising these investigations. These deficiencies are significant because they impact on the consistency and quality of the critical incident investigations that police undertake. We are particularly concerned by the inadequacy of the conflict of interest form currently being used to identify and keep account of the way that conflicts of interest are managed in critical incident investigations, as outlined in Part 3.1 of this report. We are also concerned that a number of critical incident investigations remain open without any or adequate reasons being provided. This is discussed in Part 4 of this report. We have made three recommendations to assist the NSW Police Force to improve its compliance with the critical incident guidelines - (1) It is recommended that the NSW Police Force revises the current P1103 Critical incident - conflict of interest declaration form to be more similar in form and content to the MARA Part B - Disclosure of conflict by Investigator/Resolution Manager form. (2) It is recommended that NSW Police Force Critical Incident Guidelines include a hyperlink and/or reference to NSW Police Force Procedures for Managing Conflicts of Interest. (3) It is recommended that NSW Police Force Critical Incident Guidelines require the senior critical incident investigator to record reasons explaining why any mandatory testing event occurred outside the desired two hour timeframe. In its response to the Commission's draft report the NSW Police Force indicated that it supports these recommendations and has implemented recommendation 2. To this end, they informed us that - the current P1103 form has been amended to incorporate the Commission's recommendation. Each member of the critical incident investigation team must complete the amended Conflict of Interest Declaration Form on e@gle.i.6 -the critical incident guidelines will include a hyperlink to the NSW Police Force Procedures for Managing Conflicts of Interest, and -the NSW Police Force has taken action to ensure that senior critical incident investigators are provided with instructions about the need to make records of the reasons for any delays associated with the completion of tests. Our draft report also contained a preliminary recommendation that the critical incident guidelines should clarify the requirements relating to the completion of interim reports, including the role and purpose of interim reports, when interim reports should be completed, what should be contained in the interim reports and who is expected to complete them. The NSW Police Force advised us that police are now required to provide a preliminary report to the Senior Coroner and Crown Solicitor no later than eight weeks after a senior coroner has determined jurisdiction under section 23 of the Coroners Act 2009 concerning deaths in custody or as a result of police operations. The critical incident guidelines will include details of the requirement. As the preliminary report to the Coroner will contain essentially the same information that we would have expected to see in an interim report, we have withdrawn the preliminary recommendation. While the NSW Police Force has undertaken to address the above issues in its revised critical incident guidelines, it is worth noting that the NSW Police Force has been reviewing the 2016 Critical Incident Guidelines for nearly two years. At the time of publication of this report, the Commission has not yet seen the finalised version. Details: Sydney, Australia: Law Enforcement Conduct Commission, 2019. 36p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed June 27, 2019 at: https://www.lecc.nsw.gov.au/news-and-publications/publications/review-of-29-nswpf-critical-incident-investigations-june-2019.pdf Year: 2019 Country: Australia URL: https://www.lecc.nsw.gov.au/news-and-publications/news/lecc-report-into-nsw-police-force-critical-incidents Shelf Number: 156572 Keywords: Australia Critical Incident Investigation Law Enforcement Police Department Police Force |
Author: New South Wales Auditor-General Title: Firearms Regulation Summary: Firearms used by the general public in NSW are regulated through the Firearms Act 1996 (NSW) (the Act) and the Firearms Regulation 2017 (NSW) (Regulation). In October 2018, there were over 237,500 firearm licence holders and just over one million registered firearms in NSW. The Act and Regulation reflect the National Firearms Agreement reached by all Australian jurisdictions in 1996 and confirmed in 2017. This Agreement sets out the minimum requirements for regulating firearms. The Act recognises that possessing and using firearms are privileges conditional on the overriding need to ensure public safety. The NSW Police Force (NSW Police), which includes the Firearms Registry (the Registry), is responsible for administering the Act and Regulation, and for operating the NSW firearms licensing and registration scheme. Relevant third parties such as approved clubs, firearms dealers and shooting ranges also carry some administrative and oversight responsibilities under the Act and Regulation. The role of the Registry includes administering the following requirements under the Act and Regulation that are relevant to this audit: -licence conditions; -licence suspensions and revocations; -initiating seizure of firearms assessing permits to acquire firearms; -administering the good reason test; -maintaining the register of firearms; -approving alternative safe storage arrangements. The Registry's other activities identified in this report support its regulatory responsibilities under the NSW Government framework for better regulation. This audit assessed how well the Registry administers the requirements of the Act and Regulation for existing firearms licence holders. To effectively administer these requirements, the Registry should have: a reliable database that supports the firearms licensing and registration scheme appropriate risk-based policies and procedures for the Registry's operation that are consistent with the Act and Regulation. We did not assess the Registry's processes in assessing and issuing firearms licences to new applicants or renewing licences of existing licence holders. We also did not examine the administrative actions conducted by police officers who are not part of the Registry. Details: Sydney, Australia: Audit Office of New South Wales, 2019. 51p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed July 19, 2019 at: https://www.audit.nsw.gov.au/sites/default/files/pdf-downloads/Firearms%20regulation%20final%20report_0.pdf Year: 2019 Country: Australia URL: https://www.audit.nsw.gov.au/our-work/reports/firearms-regulation Shelf Number: 156910 Keywords: Audit Firearms Licensing Firearms Regulation Gun Control Police Force |