POLICE PROCEEDINGS, SELECTED STATES AND TERRITORIES

OVERVIEW

This chapter presents statistics about police proceedings during the period 1 July 2015 to 30 June 2016 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 or 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 other chapters of this publication. For further information about the scope and counting methodology for the collection refer to paragraphs 3–15 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 and territories, refer to paragraphs 50–82 of the Explanatory Notes.

Police proceedings across the selected states and territories increased by 5% (26,449 proceedings) from 2014–15, to 611,889 proceedings for 2015–16. Court actions accounted for 60% of proceedings, and increased by 7% (22,868 proceedings) from 2014–15. Non-court actions increased by 2% (or 3,535 proceedings) for the same period. (Tables 26–31)


COURT ACTIONS

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

• 33% (or 32,490 proceedings) in New South Wales.
• 29% (or 704 proceedings) in the Australian Capital Territory.
• 26% (or 20,590 proceedings) in Victoria.
• 25% (or 8,191 proceedings) in South Australia.
• 22% (or 2,129 proceedings in Tasmania. (Tables 26–27 and 29–31)

In Queensland, the most prevalent principal offence proceeded against via court actions was Illicit drug offences, which accounted for 25% (or 36,727) of Queensland’s court actions. Queensland makes relatively greater use of court actions than other states and territories across the majority of offence categories. (Table 28)


NON–COURT ACTIONS

Public order offences was the most prevalent principal offence proceeded against via non-court actions for all selected states and territories, except for New South Wales and South Australia.

Of all non-court proceedings, Public order offences accounted for:

• 54% (or 3,622 proceedings) in Tasmania.
• 47% (or 529 proceedings in the Australian Capital Territory.
• 38% (or 12,433 proceedings) in Queensland.
• 34% (or 12,648 proceedings) in Victoria. (Tables 27–28 and 30–31).

The most prevalent principal offence proceeded against via non-court proceedings in New South Wales was Theft (57% or 74,116 proceedings). In New South Wales police have responsibility for the state’s public transport network, which results in a higher number of offenders of Theft (due to public transport fare evasion) than in other jurisdictions where this responsibility may be performed by third party organisations. (Tables 7 and 26)

In South Australia, the most prevalent principal offence for non-court actions was Illicit drug offences (50% or 16,910 proceedings). In South Australia, police have the option of issuing Cannabis Expiation Notices (CENs) for minor drug possession and/or use offences. In addition, South Australia makes greater use of non-court proceedings via drug diversion schemes (counselling). This contributes to a higher proportion of Illicit drug offences in South Australia being proceeded against via non-court action than in other jurisdictions. (Table 29)