Executive summary
Police are equipped with broad powers to enable them to enforce the law.
The Integrity Commission (the Commission) provides independent oversight of police. This review is part of the Commission’s role in providing independent oversight of police. It is a review of Tasmania Police’s new conduct and complaint management policy, named ‘Abacus’.
Abacus was adopted in early 2018, following a joint review of the previous policy between Tasmania Police and the Commission. This review of Abacus included:
- a review of the policy Abacus
- obtaining input, as far as we were able, from key stakeholders, including meetings with Tasmania Police and the Police Association of Tasmania
- a sample audit of 30 files, and
- collecting statistics from Tasmania Police.
The review has 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.
Related content: Media release