On this page:
Contact details
Purpose
Description
Definition of family and domestic violence
Relationship to Defining the data challenge for family, domestic and sexual violence (cat. no. 4529.0)
Family and domestic violence related content (data items collected)
Collection methodology
Scope / Target population
Coverage
Data availability / Dissemination
Publications
Collection history
Other directory data sources held by this agency

COMPUTERISED OPERATIONAL POLICING SYSTEM (COPS), NEW SOUTH WALES

DASHBOARD METADATA

Collection type		Geographic coverage		Frequency		Data availability
Administrative by-product		New South Wales LGA SLA		More than annual		Detailed publication / report publicly available Customised data - free upon request 1 Customised data - charged consultancy 1

[1] May be subject to release conditions - See BOCSAR Information Service Policy

DETAILED METADATA

Contact details

Data custodian	New South Wales Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research
Contact	Deputy Director
Address	GPO Box 6, SYDNEY, NSW, 2001
Telephone	02 9231 9190
Facsimile	02 9231 9187
Email	bcsr@agd.nsw.gov.au
Internet	http://www.bocsar.nsw.gov.au
Source link	http://www.bocsar.nsw.gov.au/agdbasev7wr/_assets/bocsar/m716854l3/rcs2012.pdf

PURPOSE

To record all incidents reported or becoming known to police which require some police action for investigative and intelligence purposes.

DESCRIPTION

COPS is an operational database used by the NSW Police Force to record information relevant to all victims, offenders and incidents that are reported to police or come to police attention. Unit record data is extracted for BOCSAR which produces quarterly statistics.

DEFINITION OF FAMILY AND DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

Within COPS, family and domestic violence is indicated in an incident where police enter “associated factor = DV Related”. A family/domestic relationship is indicated by the use of a flag and information in the ‘relationship’ field.

Aspects of family and domestic violence captured included are:

• physical abuse;
• sexual abuse;
• harassment and stalking;
• property damage; and
• verbal argument (DV Incident: no offence).

RELATIONSHIP TO DEFINING THE DATA CHALLENGE FOR FAMILY, DOMESTIC AND SEXUAL VIOLENCE (cat. no. 4529.0)

The summary table below is designed to indicate the amount of information available for each of the six elements outlined in Defining the Data Challenge for Family, Domestic and Sexual Violence, 2013 (cat. no. 4529.0). This is a subjective assessment made by the ABS about the data collected and is not an indication of data quality.

Conceptual Framework	Amount of Information Available
Element/Sub–element
	Some	Detailed
Context
Environmental factors
Psycho-social factors
Risk
Community prevalence
Community incidence
Incident/event
Responses
Formal responses
Informal responses
Impacts/Outcomes
Programs, Research & Evaluation

FAMILY AND DOMESTIC VIOLENCE RELATED CONTENT (data items collected)

The following tables provide a detailed analysis of the availability of specified data elements in the data source. The data items have been grouped into four counting units:
1. Context;
2. Person;
3. Incident/Event; and
4. Transaction.

Tables are absent from the entry in cases where the data source contains no data items which relate to the particular counting unit/s.

Context

Please note: This data source does not contain any data items relevant to this counting unit.
Person

Data Items	Victim	Perpetrator	Secondary
Residential location
Age
Sex
Indigenous status
Disability status
Country of birth
Language spoken
Employment status
Education
Income
Socio-economic status
Mental illness
Other:

Incident/event

Data Items	Available
Location of incident/event
Residential location
Workplace
Educational institution
Public Place
Other Location
Relationship between parties1
Current partner
Previous partner
Boyfriend/girlfriend/date
Parent
Child
Sibling
Other relatives
Other member of household
Personal/financial dependency
Other
Other Characteristics
Weapon used
Type of weapon
Physical injury sustained
Type of injury sustained
Pregnancy
Alcohol/substance use
Prior history of victimisation/offending
Change to routine
Time off work/economic costs
Perceptions of behaviour as criminal
Other

[1] Relationship data is mostly reliable. About 60% of records where offender - victim relationship is asked have a non-zero value. However in some cases the relationship is incorrectly recorded as the victim - offender relationship (e.g. infant assaulting adult parent). Broad-level categorisations (e.g. family member) are deemed to be reliable.Transaction

Data Items	Available
Detection
Reported to police
Reasons not reported to police
Satisfaction with police response
Application for violence order
Violence order issued
Offender charged
Offender went to court
Offender sentence type
Child protection involvement
Other
Formal support
Services used/referral to services
Medical treatment/type
Counselling
Legal
Financial
Housing/accommodation
Crisis
Other
Informal Support
Family/friends
Minister/priest
Telephone service
Other

COLLECTION METHODOLOGY

Police officers enter records directly onto COPS whenever a matter is reported to or otherwise becomes known to police.

SCOPE / TARGET POPULATION

All persons involved in incidents – person reporting, victim, witness, suspect/alleged offender.

COVERAGE

n/a

DATA AVAILABILITY / DISSEMINATION

Some data publicly available.

PUBLICATIONS

NSW Recorded Crime Statistics

COLLECTION HISTORY

Collection commenced: 4 April 1994

Break in series: no

Other details: n/a

OTHER DIRECTORY DATA SOURCES HELD BY THIS AGENCY

Justicelink, New South Wales