Report on Government Services 2015

Chapter 6, Volume C

Police services

The Police services chapter (chapter 6) of the Report on Government Services reports on the operations of the police agencies of each State and Territory government, including the ACT community policing function performed by the Australian Federal Police.

Download the chapter

Key Facts
Indicator Framework
Indicator Results

Recurrent expenditure on community policing services across Australia was approximately $10.2 billion (or $437 per person) in 2013-14. Police agencies employed 69 462 staff in 2013-14.

Information is included on community safety, crime, road safety and judicial services. For example, data are reported on public perceptions of safety and public perceptions of particular crimes as a problem, recorded victims of crime and perceptions of safety and crime, road safety as well as lower court defendants resulting in a guilty plea or finding.

The objectives of police services are to:

allow people to undertake their lawful pursuits confidently and safely
bring to justice those people responsible for committing an offence
promote safer behaviour on roads
support the judicial process to achieve efficient and effective court case management and judicial processing, providing safe custody for alleged offenders, and ensuring fair and equitable treatment of both victims and alleged offenders.

The performance indicator framework provides information on equity, efficiency and effectiveness, and distinguishes the outputs and outcomes of police services. The performance indicator framework shows which data are complete and comparable in the 2015 Report.

An overview of the Police services performance indicator results are presented. Information to assist the interpretation of these data can be found in the indicator interpretation boxes in the Police services chapter and attachment tables.

Expand all Collapse all

Equity — Access indicators

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staffing

Data for this indicator not complete or not directly comparable (chapter 6).

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staffing, 2013-14.
	NSW	Vic	Qld	WA	SA	Tas	ACT	NT	Aust
%	2.4	0.3	2.3	1.5	1.1	1.7	1.3	6.6	..

Legend: .. Not applicable.
Source: Attachment table 6A.17.

Staffing by gender

Data for this indicator comparable, subject to caveats (chapter 6).

Proportion of all staff who are female, 2013-14.
	NSW	Vic	Qld	WA	SA	Tas	ACT	NT	Aust
%	32.7	30.1	34.8	29.5	30.7	35.8	33.7	36.2	..

Legend: .. Not applicable
Source: Attachment table 6A.18.

Effectiveness — Output indicators

Complaints

Data for this indicator not complete or not directly comparable (chapter 6).

Complaints against police per 100 000 population, 2013-14.
	NSW	Vic	Qld	WA	SA	Tas	ACT	NT	Aust
No.	45	16	28	43	81	21	48	118	..

Legend: .. Not applicable
Source: Attachment table 6A.16.

Juvenile diversions

Data for this indicator not complete or not directly comparable (chapter 6).

As a proportion of offenders, 2013-14.
	NSW	Vic	Qld	WA	SA	Tas	ACT	NT	Aust
%	na	17	35	45	53	58	40	39	..

Legend: na Not available; .. Not applicable.
Source: Attachment table 6A.39.

Satisfaction with police services

Data for this indicator comparable, subject to caveats (chapter 6).

Proportion of people 'satisfied' or 'very satisfied', 2013-14.
	NSW	Vic	Qld	WA	SA	Tas	ACT	NT	Aust
%	73.4	76.9	76.0	70.7	82.2	77.0	77.9	75.4	75.3

Source: Attachment table 6A.12.

Perceptions of police integrity

Data for this indicator comparable, subject to caveats (chapter 6).

Proportion of people who 'agreed' or 'strongly agreed' that police are..., 2013-14.
	NSW	Vic	Qld	WA	SA	Tas	ACT	NT	Aust
Fair and treat people equally (%)	75.5	75.1	76.7	76.2	77.8	81.0	79.9	74.3	76.1
Professional (%)	85.9	87.3	87.0	85.1	89.6	89.0	89.7	86.2	86.7
Honest (%)	72.9	74.5	74.3	73.5	78.8	79.5	79.2	76.7	74.4

Source: Attachment table 6A.13–15.

Perceptions of crime problems

Data for this indicator comparable, subject to caveats (chapter 6).

'Major problem' or 'somewhat of a problem', 2013-14 (%).
	NSW	Vic	Qld	WA	SA	Tas	ACT	NT	Aust
Illegal drugs (%)	39.9	38.5	30.9	38.8	32.5	32.6	28.3	37.6	36.7
Speeding cars, dangerous or noisy driving (%)	59.2	61.5	58.7	68.6	61.0	58.1	63.9	57.2	60.9

Source: Attachment table 6A.22–23.

Efficiency indicators

Dollars per person

Data for this indicator comparable, subject to caveats (Chapter 6).

Real recurrent expenditure on police services per person, 2013-14
	NSW	Vic	Qld	WA	SA	Tas	ACT	NT	Aust
$	443	394	418	496	415	399	440	1227	437

Source: Attachment table 6A.10.

Proportion of prosecutions where costs were awarded against police

Data for this indicator not complete or not directly comparable (Chapter 6).

Percentage of prosecutions where costs are awarded against the police, 2013-14.
	NSW	Vic	Qld	WA	SA	Tas	ACT	NT	Aust
%	0.20	0.14	0.01	1.16	1.76	–	1.06	0.92	..

Legend: .. Not applicable; – Nil or rounded to zero.
Source: Attachment table 6A.41.

Effectiveness — Outcome indicators

Perceptions of safety

Data for this indicator comparable, subject to caveats (Chapter 6).

Home alone at night, 2013-14.
	NSW	Vic	Qld	WA	SA	Tas	ACT	NT	Aust
%	87.5	90.4	89.7	86.0	90.4	92.9	93.8	85.9	89.0

Source: Attachment tables 6A.19-21.

Walking alone at night.
	NSW	Vic	Qld	WA	SA	Tas	ACT	NT	Aust
%	53.0	50.2	49.5	47.6	48.6	58.9	54.4	43.7	50.8

Source: Attachment tables 6A.19-21.

Travelling on public transport at night.
	NSW	Vic	Qld	WA	SA	Tas	ACT	NT	Aust
%	26.3	23.5	25.4	17.3	25.5	22.2	32.5	13.9	24.3

Source: Attachment tables 6A.19-21.

Crime victimisation

Data for this indicator comparable, subject to caveats (Chapter 6).

Rate per 100 000 people/100 000 households, 2012 13.
	NSW	Vic	Qld	WA	SA	Tas	ACT	NT	Aust
Physical assault	2250	2636	3106	3489	2590	2586	2608	4542	2706
Threatened assault	2433	2599	2840	3361	3406	3670	3420	3974	2781
Robbery	303	390	282	623	200	468	610	426	357
Sexual assault	247	237	209	311	86	288	177	455	233
Break in	2440	2334	2709	4374	2130	2367	2843	7948	2699
Attempted break-in	1629	1585	1965	3466	1660	1989	2427	3613	1926
Vehicle theft	701	534	611	929	382	805	347	1445	644
Theft from vehicle	2429	3366	2356	6232	3055	2225	2497	3613	3110
Malicious damage	6022	6500	4547	9208	6301	6676	7212	8671	6260
Other theft	2383	3033	2989	3247	2600	3078	2497	3324	2802

Source: Attachment tables 6A.27- 28.

Reporting rates

Data for this indicator comparable, subject to caveats (Chapter 6).

Reporting rates, 2012-13 (%).
	NSW	Vic	Qld	WA	SA	Tas	ACT	NT	Aust
Physical assault	48.0	42.0	59.5	44.4	63.3	52.9	40.8	48.2	49.7
Threatened assault	35.4	39.3	38.5	37.2	32.8	45.1	27.3	51.1	37.2
Robbery	49.1	39.8	67.6	51.2	39.5	64.4	na	na	49.7
Sexual assault	53.8	34.7	na	32.5	na	30.1	na	na	34.2
Break-in	78.8	77.1	77.2	78.9	77.0	84.4	72.8	73.9	77.9
Attempted break-in	41.7	47.4	43.0	43.4	34.8	49.2	46.0	38.4	43.2
Vehicle theft	94.2	na	87.7	na	100.0	na	100.0	na	92.7
Theft from vehicle	56.7	59.3	45.9	57.0	45.1	45.9	59.1	55.5	54.7
Malicious damage	49.6	47.4	50.7	58.8	46.7	48.7	46.2	60.2	50.5
Other theft	31.6	36.8	35.5	36.8	39.4	39.1	38.2	34.8	35.4

Legend: na Not available.
Source: Attachment tables 6A.29-30).

Outcomes of investigations

Data for this indicator not complete or not directly comparable (Chapter 6).

Outcomes of investigations, 30 day status, 2013 (% finalised).
	NSW	Vic	Qld	WA	SA	Tas	ACT	NT	Aust
Homicide and related offences	60.8	67.9	68.1	65.2	72.5	70.0	np	87.0	..
Sexual assault	29.6	36.4	51.0	38.7	42.6	44.1	33.0	66.5	..
Armed robbery	31.8	37.3	49.8	38.5	38.8	56.5	19.7	43.8	..
Unarmed robbery	27.3	30.5	50.6	31.3	36.5	73.9	23.5	57.8	..
Kidnapping	42.3	45.3	45.6	64.7	49.3	np	np	np	..
Unlawful entry	7.4	8.5	15.3	10.6	8.6	17.2	3.5	29.6	10.4
Vehicle theft	7.7	11.3	31.2	21.2	14.4	13.9	4.1	36.5	16.4
Other theft	12.1	15.4	24.6	11.5	15.8	26.7	8.9	31.1	16.0

Legend: .. Not applicable; np Not published.
Source: Attachment tables 6A.31-32.

Road safety

Data for this indicator comparable, subject to caveats (Chapter 6).

People who had driven in previous 6 months 'rarely' or more often..., 2013-14 (%).
	NSW	Vic	Qld	WA	SA	Tas	ACT	NT	Aust
Without a seatbelt	4.3	6.1	5.0	4.9	6.8	6.2	4.9	8.2	5.2
Over alcohol limit	8.6	7.2	5.7	8.1	9.1	9.1	9.1	10.5	7.7
Speeding >10km/h	56.7	49.4	56.6	59.9	45.6	55.7	62.9	62.0	54.5

Source: Attachment tables 6A.33-35.

Road deaths

Data for this indicator comparable, subject to caveats (Chapter 6).

Road deaths per 100 000 registered vehicles, 2013-14.
	NSW	Vic	Qld	WA	SA	Tas	ACT	NT	Aust
Rate	6.7	5.7	6.2	7.7	6.6	8.8	2.9	27.6	6.4

Source: Attachment table 6A.36.

Land transport hospitalisations per registered vehicle

Data for this indicator comparable, subject to caveats (Chapter 6).

Land transport hospitalisations per 100 000 registered vehicles, 2012-13.
	NSW	Vic	Qld	WA	SA	Tas	ACT	NT	Aust
Rate	259	189	231	220	228	156	291	428	228

Source: Attachment table 6A.37.

Deaths in police custody

Data for this indicator comparable, subject to caveats (Chapter 6).

Deaths in police custody, 2012-13.
	NSW	Vic	Qld	WA	SA	Tas	ACT	NT	Aust
No.	5	2	4	6	1	–	–	–	18

Legend: – Nil or rounded to zero.
Source: Attachment table 6A.38.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander deaths in custody

Data for this indicator comparable, subject to caveats (Chapter 6).

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander deaths in police custody, 2012-2013.
	NSW	Vic	Qld	WA	SA	Tas	ACT	NT	Aust
No.	–	–	1	3	1	–	–	–	5

Legend: – Nil or rounded to zero.
Source: Attachment table 6A.38.

Magistrates court defendants resulting in a guilty plea or finding

Data for this indicator comparable, subject to caveats (Chapter 6).

Magistrates' court guilty plea or finding of all adjudicated defendants, 2012-13.
	NSW	Vic	Qld	WA	SA	Tas	ACT	NT	Aust
%	94.6	97.2	99.3	99.3	99.4	87.9	96.3	96.6	97.4

Source: Attachment table 6A.40.