Family violence procedure improved prior to reports release, police

Detailed in a report released last month examining the Family Violence Act, introduced after Tara Costigan's murder, was a reluctance to issue after-hours orders.

Designed to provide protection to victims believed to be at immediate risk, the orders are a temporary, two-day solution providing police grounds to arrest perpetrators of violence if a breach is observed, according to the ACT Law Society. Orders can be made over the phone if the grounds do not exist to immediately arrest an alleged offender.

After consulting with professional stakeholders and people with lived experience, the report found two things most people agreed on: information sharing in family violence systems and after-hours orders were seen as inadequate.

Acting-Inspector Smith said the report relied on data collected primarily in 2018 and 2019 and since then changes had been made.

Court records show that between July 1, 2019 and June 30, 2020, magistrates issued around 120 after-hours family violence orders, a police spokesperson said.

Acting-Inspector Smith said communication and interaction between police and service providers had also completely changed over the last couple of years.

"It's valuable in that it's talking about issues to do with legislation, but from a policing perspective, the way we interact with our partners is completely different," he said.

Acting-Inspector Smith said government agencies, department agencies and police are meeting bi-monthly to discuss issues relating to family violence. He said the introduction of the Family Violence Safety Action Pilot this year had also enabled government and non-government sectors to collaborate and respond to high-risk offenders and victims.

"It's about wrapping services around them to support them out of the family violence cycle," Acting-Inspector Smith said.

He said the family violence unit was also now reviewing incidents which occurred overnight and deciding what action would need to be taken, based off the first responders assessment.

From a legislation perspective, Acting-Inspector Smith said police were limited due to the absence of Police Issued Safety notices in the ACT, a policy of every other jurisdiction.

The protection notices afford police power to issue emergency protection to victims themselves, rather than relying on a magistrate's approval.

"There's been talk for a very long time of their introduction within the family violence sector for a very long time," Acting-Inspector Smith said.

He said the need had been recognised for the order but legislators had never quite agreed on how to make it happen.

As part of the action pilot, weekly meetings are held between agencies, including the Domestic Violence Crisis Service, and police to share information on matters of family violence that are before the criminal justice system.

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Director of Client Services Dearne Weaver said it was a reasonable premise to believe front-line patrols would be hesitant to get an order during the night, but it was a difficult thing to measure.

"The ACT is slightly different to other states and territories in that we have the pro-arrest aspect for family violence for ACT Policing which is evidence-based arrest, quite often if someone rings the magistrates after hours with high-risk concerns the magistrate will want a justification as to why that person hasn't been charged and arrested," she said.

Ms Weaver said there was no national approach to family violence prevention and victim protection and there was room for the bringing together of best practice from all the states and territories.

She said she believed the introduction of Police Initiated Safety notices would ensure police weren't hesitating to issue after-hour orders, if indeed they were concerned about waking magistrates.

Ms Weaver said in NSW the legislation meant it was only police who took out protection orders. The victims did not have the power to go to court and initiate their own order, which she wouldn't want to see.

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