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The Integrity Commission has today tabled in the Tasmanian Parliament a review of Tasmania Police’s new conduct and complaint management system, Abacus.

Abacus is Tasmania Police’s publicly available procedure for the management of conduct and complaints. The Abacus system was developed based on a Tasmania Police and Integrity Commission joint review of previous conduct and complaints policy.

Chief Commissioner Greg Melick said today’s report is a qualitative review of Abacus, including a sample audit of thirty matters managed by Tasmania Police.

“The audit covered four broad areas: the overall management of alleged misconduct; adequacy of contact with relevant parties; adequacy and appropriateness of inquiries and investigations; and adequacy and appropriateness of outcomes. We sought feedback from both the Police Association of Tasmania (PAT) and Tasmania Police about Abacus.”

Chief Commissioner Melick said the report concludes that Abacus provides established procedures and detailed guidelines to deal with conduct management in Tasmania Police.

“While no system is perfect, the Commission considers that Abacus is perhaps the most advanced police conduct management system in Australia.

“We found that overall, Abacus is working as intended. In particular:

  • timeliness in managing matters has continued to improve
  • in nearly all cases, there was adequate and appropriate contact with police officers and complainants
  • Tasmania Police adequately and appropriately investigated nearly all aspects of all files
  • in most cases, findings and outcomes were adequate and appropriate.”

Chief Commissioner Melick said previous audits have found areas of good practice, and areas where improvements are needed to ensure consistent, effective management of misconduct occurs.

“The audits build capacity to prevent police misconduct by identifying areas of improvement around complaint handling.

“Tasmania Police has invested significantly over the past 3 years in continually improving its complaints handling practices with the implementation of Abacus. This has been a resource intensive and challenging undertaking because of the complexities involved in overhauling the previous system. It involved compilation of a detailed policy, extensive training, and delivery of new processes and procedures.

“We anticipate that the system will continue to improve as police further embed the system, and identify and rectify issues over time. Overall, the results of this review reveal that Tasmania Police is operating a well-functioning conduct management system and is willing to ensure matters are dealt with effectively and efficiently.”

The report, along with other research being conducted by the Commission, will be available on the Commission’s website:

www.integrity.tas.gov.au

Media release by Greg Melick AO SC Chief Commissioner

Media contact

Kylie Fisk, Acting Director, Misconduct Prevention
kylie.fisk@integrity.tas.gov.au
Ph: 1300 720 289