The ACT government will have no option but to further increase funding to its contracted police force as a direct result of the recommendations handed down in a review of how police respond to and investigate sexual assault cases in the territory.
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Sitting on the oversight committee and aware of the sharp criticism that was coming for ACT Policing in the report, former top cop Neil Gaughan admitted shortly before his recent departure from the chief police officer role in March that he had to dismantle other investigative capabilities to bolster his Sex Assault and Child Abuse Team (SACAT).
However, even that resourcing reshuffle will not be enough to deal with the massive additional case load which must now be addressed as a direct result of the report's recommendations.
Intense scrutiny will now fall on how police not only deal with the reopened cases but all future cases, with one of the recommendations co-locating a member of the ACT Human Rights Commission within SACAT. Just before leaving the top cop role, Deputy Commissioner Gaughan expressed his concern that fewer police would want to work in SACAT given the pressure and scrutiny.
Police information management systems will need to be overhauled, too, which places pressure on the ACT's IT and support teams.
The report, therefore, has resource ramifications not just for the sworn cohort of officers but for the many others who sit in unsworn support roles.
SACAT is a voluntary arm of police investigations and while the police executive are coy about the number of additional sworn resources required, as a result of this report there are now 182 cases to be re-examined by police, on top of the team's existing caseload. This came from an academic assessment of 749 sexual offending cases, spanning the period from July 2020 to December 2021.
Any decision to reopen cases as a result of the re-examination process will also need to be "quality-assured" by senior investigators, across an ACT cohort which the former top cop recently described as "the most junior police workforce in the country".
The ACT government pays the Australian Federal Police around $205 million a year to provide policing services to the territory. Midway through last year, the Barr-Rattenbury government committed an additional $107 million for 126 new staff over five years.
However, this funding is for recruitment only and will put around 25 extra probationary constables on general duties each year. While these officers may well be the first responders to sex assault matters, any further investigation will be passed on to SACAT.
It has long been argued by the federal police association, which represents rank-and-file federal officers including those working in the ACT, that police numbers in the territory are significantly below what they should be.
This claim has been independently and repeatedly supported by data released through the Report on Government Services, but regularly dismissed by the ACT government as not applicable to the territory's specific geography and/or circumstances.
The Nixon-Fryar report into police management of sexual assault cases in the ACT revealed some significant issues across the policing and judicial systems, and makes 28 recommendations to deal with what were described as "systemic issues".
The raw numbers presented in the report make for bleak reading at police headquarters. In the review of ACT sex assault cases from 2010 to 2021, it revealed that charges laid against perpetrators has trended down, rather than up. In 2010, 28 per cent of cases had charges laid; in 2021, it was 7 per cent.
The ACT government response to the report is due in August.
- Support is available for those who may be distressed. Phone Lifeline 13 11 14; Men's Referral Service 1300 776 491; Kids Helpline 1800 551 800; beyondblue 1300 224 636; 1800-RESPECT 1800 737 732; National Elder Abuse 1800 ELDERHelp (1800 353 374)
