A Twelve Month Review of the Police Complaints and Discipline Act 2016

Summary

The report's own summary: Commissioner’s foreword, pages 6 to 7

In the body's own words

1. Recommendation

   The PCDA be amended to permit the OPI to identify a matter on its own initiative for assessment by IIS or referral under section 29 to the ICAC.

   Report, page 56

Findings, opinions and statements

Allegations are not findings. A commission's finding or opinion of corrupt conduct or misconduct is not a finding that a person is guilty of a criminal offence, and the commissions say so in their reports.

No findings are reproduced in this record. This does not establish that the report contains none.

Recommendations 18

1. Recommendation 1

   The PCDA be amended to permit the OPI to identify a matter on its own initiative for assessment by IIS or referral under section 29 to the ICAC.

   Report, page 56

2. Recommendation 2

   Section 13(2) timeframe be amended to allow for 3 business days.

   Report, page 56

3. Recommendation 3

   Section 14 be amended to read: (1) Each complaint or report received by or referred to the IIS under this Act must be assessed as to whether – (a) it raises a potential issue of corruption in public administration that could be the subject of prosecution; or (b) it raises a potential issue of misconduct or maladministration in public administration; or (c) it raises some other issue that should in the opinion of the officer in charge of the IIS, be referred to the OPI; or (d) in the opinion of the officer in charge of IIS it is trivial, vexatious, frivolous or not made in good faith, it has been dealt with before and there is no reason to re-examine it or having regards to all the circumstances of the case an investigation of the complaint or report is unnecessary or unjustifiable and no action should be taken in regard to it and a determination made as to whether or not action should be taken under Part 3 or Part 4 of this Act. (2) Subject to this Act, an assessment under this section may be conducted in such a manner as the officer in charge of IIS thinks fit. (3) If a particular complaint or report is assessed as being a complaint or report referred to in subsection (1) (a) or (c), the officer in charge of the IIS must in a manner and form determined by the OPI, notify the OPI of that fact.

   Report, page 56

4. Recommendation 4

   Consideration be given as to whether section 15 should be repealed. If not section 15 (d) be amended to refer to both complaints and reports.

   Report, page 56

5. Recommendation 5

   Amend the definition of misconduct in the PCDA to make it clear that misconduct for the PCDA includes conduct other than while the designated officer is acting in his or her capacity as a public officer as prescribed in the ICAC Act.

   Report, page 57

6. Recommendation 6

   Section 28 be amended to provide that the OPI may reassess and/or substitute its view of the recommended action determined by IIS.

   Report, page 57

7. Recommendation 7

   Section 17 be amended to resolve any ambiguity that the CoP retains a discretion to make a determination under section 16 in the face of regulations that specify the kind of complaints and reports and conduct that should or should not be the subject of a determination under section 16.

   Report, page 57

8. Recommendation 8

   Amend section 17(1)(b) to refer to both complaints and reports. The same amendment should be made to section 18(3).

   Report, page 57

9. Recommendation 9

   Section 18 be amended to provide that if during the Management Resolution process information suggests that the assessment of the seriousness of the matter should be reconsidered such that it would no longer be appropriate to deal with the matter under Part 3 IIS must be advised immediately; the Management Resolution process should cease; and if a reassessment determines the matter should be investigated, an investigation commenced.

   Report, page 57

10. Recommendation 10

    Section 21(1) be amended: Subject to this Act, each complaint or report assessed under section 14 as raising a potential issue of misconduct or maladministration and recommended to be investigated under Part 4 of this Act must be investigated by IIS.

    Report, page 57

11. Recommendation 11

    Section 21(2) be repealed.

    Report, page 57

12. Recommendation 12

    A subsection be enacted to enable the officer in charge of IIS to determine following consultation with the OPI to discontinue an investigation and to deal with the matter under Part 3 of the Act or take no further action.

    Report, page 58

13. Recommendation 13

    The PCDA Act be amended that if there is dispute between the OPI and SA Police regarding a decision as to whether a matter involving the conduct of a designated officer should be referred to the DPP, the matter will be referred.

    Report, page 58

14. Recommendation 14

    Section 35(6) of the PCDA be amended to allow the OPI staff member who is permitted to be present may be nominated by the OPI or ICAC.

    Report, page 58

15. Recommendation 15

    The PCDA be amended to include a provision that if the ICAC has referred a matter that raises a potential issue of corruption on the part of a designated officer the officer or officers appointed by the CoP to investigate that conduct would have all the powers of the IIS in Part 4 of the PCDA.

    Report, page 58

16. Recommendation 16

    Section 30 of the PCDA be amended to expressly provide that the ICAC can utilise powers under the ICAC Act to investigate misconduct and/or maladministration.

    Report, page 58

17. Recommendation 17

    Amend section 5(2) of the Ombudsman Act to refer to the PCDA.

    Report, page 58

18. Recommendation 18

    Amend the PCDA to make clear the ICAC may use powers under the Ombudsman Act for the purposes of exercising powers in relation to matters of misconduct and maladministration relating to a police complaint or report.

    Report, page 58

Published responses

No published response was found.

Coverage

This publisher

• Office for Public Integrity: publishes only its annual reports (excluded); no OPI report or statement records.
• Since October 2021 the Commission does not make findings of corrupt conduct; most records have no findings.
• Government and agency responses are recorded only where the Commission's page links them or the report reproduces them; implementation status is not published by the Commission as structured data.
• Scanned reports without a text layer are not read (no OCR); their recommendations stay not_extracted.
• Recommendations are extracted only from numbered 'Recommendation N' lists; reports that set out recommendations in prose, tables or unnumbered lists keep recommendations_status not_extracted.
• Findings are extracted only from investigation reports that state them in the Commissioner's own words (Oakden 2018, Gillman 2015); public statements are not read for findings.