Policing and detention
Media and commentary related to our work to provide critical oversight of NSW Police, prisons and youth detention centres, to protect human rights and ensure fair and lawful treatment.
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Shoebridge Bill highlights need for action to raise the age
An alliance of community, legal, and First Nations justice organisations has welcomed the Children (Criminal Proceedings) Amendment (Age of Criminal Responsibility) Bill 2021, introduced to NSW Parliament this morning by David Shoebridge MLC. This Bill would raise the age of criminal responsibility in NSW to 14, creating both better outcomes for children kept out of…
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Challenging excessive bail enforcement checking
PIAC challenges excessive bail enforcement checking, holding police to account for misuse of power.
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Forum: Policing Public Space
Join policy, legal and consumer experts for an important lunchtime forum about the policing of homelessness in public space, as we launch a new joint report that details the experiences of people sleeping rough in Sydney. The over-policing of homelessness in public spaces has been raised by advocates and consumers alike as a significant contributor…
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Legal organisations remain concerned about the impact of secret policy on children and young people
A coalition of NSW legal and social justice organisations have reiterated serious concerns about the application of the NSW Police’s Suspect Targeting Management Plan (STMP) to children and young people. The NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research has today released its evaluation of whether there is an association between the use of the STMP…
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Policing the Pandemic Forum
Government responses to the COVID-19 pandemic have included severe and unprecedented restrictions on our movement and use of public space. For the first time, many people who have never before been the subject of police scrutiny, find themselves confronted with the reality that faces groups who are historically overpoliced. What powers do police actually have…
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Police search quota figures highlight need for greater scrutiny of policing practices
The Public Interest Advocacy Centre has called for greater scrutiny of police policies and procedures in relation to ‘stops and searches’, following revelations that police area commands have quotas for the number of searches they hope to conduct each year. Documents released publicly have revealed that NSW Police set a quota of 241,632 searches, including…
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NSW police put children as young as nine, many of them Indigenous under surveillance
‘Police in New South Wales have for two decades maintained a secretive blacklist disproportionately made up of Indigenous children deemed to be at risk of committing crimes, who they target using “unreasonable, unjust and oppressive” tactics that in some cases are likely to be illegal…’
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PIAC Welcomes Scrutiny of Invasive Policing Practices
PIAC has welcomed the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission’s (LECC) report into use of the Suspect Targeting Management Plan on children and young people, and called for extensive changes to the STMP policing practices. The STMP is a secret NSW Police policy that is used by police to target young individuals. The LECC’s investigation was launched…