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The Australian Federal Police (AFP) has cleared itself of every complaint about excessive use of force made by a member of the public since the Commonwealth Ombudsman became responsible in January 2007 for reviewing the AFP’s complaint-handling activities.
The Ombudsman’s latest review, which examined data relating to 399 complaints closed between 1 August 2009 and 28 February 2010—plus the 109 excessive use of force complaints made since January 2007, 80 from members of the public—was tabled in the Parliament today.
‘It is clear that there were deficiencies in the AFP’s complaint-handling practices during this period,’ the Ombudsman, Allan Asher, said. ‘In some cases, there was little evidence to show that AFP members took steps to diffuse difficult situations before resorting to force, while in others the records were inconsistent or incomplete.’
Mr Asher criticised the AFP for failing to address inconsistencies in statements, referring to the case of Mr X, who complained that Officer Y behaved aggressively when arresting him.
One of these inconsistencies related to a paint scraper, which Mr X claimed was in his trouser pocket and would not have been visible to police until after he was forcibly removed from his vehicle. Officer Y stated he grabbed hold of Mr X and then saw the handle of the ‘knife’; while the AFP’s ‘use of force’ report asserted that police saw the knife and then used force.
Mr Asher called into question the AFP’s complaint management practices, citing delays in reaching conclusions to investigations and the high ‘clearance’ rate as other major issues.
‘Timeliness in resolving complaints about everything from a small customer service matter right through to the most serious of misconduct claims has deteriorated, with some cases open for years,’ the Ombudsman said.
‘Good complaint handling is about resolving individual problems and making improvement to systems. It differs from investigating crimes, even though the consequences of a substantiated complaint may be severe for an AFP member, and should take into consideration the history of complaints against a member where one exists.
‘Efforts to improve the quality of complaint handling through training are paying off, but there is room for further improvement, and I look forward to continuing our work with the AFP’s Professional Standards team to this end.’
Source: Commonwealth Ombudsman
