OVERVIEW

This chapter presents statistics about police proceedings during the period 1 July 2014 to 30 June 2015 for all states and territories, except Western Australia and the Northern Territory (for further information refer to paragraphs 71 and 79 of the Explanatory Notes). As a consequence, national data are not available for police proceedings.

These data provide a count of police initiated legal proceedings, categorised as court actions or non-court actions. Please note this is not a count of offences nor a count of offenders. An offender can be proceeded against multiple times during the reference period, and so can appear multiple times in the police proceedings population. For more information about offenders refer to Chapters 2 to 5 of this publication. For further information about the scope and counting methodology for the collection refer to paragraphs 3-16 of the Explanatory Notes.

In this collection, national statistical standards and counting rules have been applied to facilitate comparisons of states and territories. However, some legislative and processing differences remain. For differences in legislation, processes or policies between states, refer to paragraphs 56-82 of the Explanatory Notes.

Across the selected states and territories, there were a total of 585,453 police proceedings in 2014-15, an increase of 7% from the previous year. Although the majority of proceedings in 2014-15 were court actions (59%), this proportion fell from 69% to 59% between 2008-09 and 2014-15. During this period police made greater use of legal actions such as informal or formal cautions/warnings, conferencing, counselling, drug diversionary schemes, or the issuing of penalty notices, which do not require an appearance in court.

COURT ACTIONS

Acts intended to cause injury was the most prevalent principal offence for court actions for all selected states and territories, except Queensland. In order of prevalence, Acts intended to cause injury accounted for:

• 34% (or 30,873 proceedings) in New South Wales;
• 26% (or 19,762 proceedings) in Victoria;
• 26% (or 8,063 proceedings) in South Australia;
• 26% (or 553 proceedings) in the Australian Capital Territory; and
• 22% (or 1,958 proceedings) in Tasmania.

In Queensland, the most prevalent principal offence for court actions was Illicit drug offences, which accounted for 24% (or 33,437) of all court actions. (Tables 26-31)



NON-COURT ACTIONS

Public order offences was the most prevalent principal offence for non-court proceedings for all selected states and territories, except New South Wales and South Australia. Of all non-court police proceedings, Public order offences accounted for:

• 53% (or 3,513 proceedings) in Tasmania;
• 47% (or 547 proceedings) in the Australian Capital Territory;
• 37% (or 11,777 proceedings) in Queensland; and
• 34% (or 15,923 proceedings) in Victoria.

The most prevalent principal offence for non-court proceedings in New South Wales was Theft (54%, or 65,213). In New South Wales, police have responsibility for the state's public transport network, which results in a higher number of proceedings for Theft (due to public transport fare evasion) than in other jurisdictions.

In South Australia, the most prevalent principal offence for non-court actions was Illicit drug offences (48%, or 14,911). In South Australia, police have the option of issuing Cannabis Expiation Notices (CENs) for minor drug possession or use offences. This contributes to a higher proportion of those with a principal offence of Illicit drug offences in South Australia being proceeded against by a non-court action than in other jurisdictions. In South Australia in 2014-15, 83% of these offenders were proceeded against via a non-court action. In the other selected states and territories this proportion ranged from 23% to 61%. (Tables 26-31)