Statistics

This year, the Commission finalised 111 complaints and no referrals.¹ Of these:

• 104 complaints (93.7%) were dismissed under section
  13(2) of the Act;
• two complaints (1.8%) were referred to an investigating panel under section 13(3) of the Act; and
• five complaints (4.5%) were referred to a head of jurisdiction under section 13(4) of the Act.²

In addition to those 111 finalisations, one complaint was withdrawn pursuant to section 17 of the Act.

As of 30 June 2023:

• 79 complaints and one referral remained open;
• 19 submissions to the Commission’s online portal remained the subject of early engagement; and four of the open complaints were received in FY21/22. One of these complaints remains adjourned pending the finalisation of an active court proceeding.

In each financial year since its inception, the Commission received more complaints from jurisdictions with the highest caseloads and number of officers: the Magistrates’ Court and VCAT. That trend continued this year, with about three-quarters of all complaints relating to the conduct of magistrates and VCAT members. The data reported below must be read in the context of the significant proportion of cases heard by those particular jurisdictions.³

While the number of complaints received is significant, it represents a minute proportion of the total cases dealt with by the Victorian courts and VCAT this year. For example, although the Commission received 78 complaints about officers of the Magistrates’ Court, the Court finalises more than 200,000 proceedings each year. This year, the Magistrates’ Court reported finalising 160,959 criminal cases, 6,766 defended civil claims and 51,112 original intervention order matters. In other words, roughly one complaint was received by the Commission per 2,800 cases finalised by the Court. Of complaints found to infringe the standards, it equates to roughly one complaint in every 43,000 cases finalised by the Court.⁴

Where complaints have distinct ‘parts’ or allegations, a single complaint may be dismissed on multiple grounds. Accordingly, the total number of grounds identified in this table exceeds the number of complaints finalised this year. The percentage figure refers to the percentage of complaints where the ground was exercised at least once.

For example, the most common dismissal ground was that the complaint did not warrant further consideration because the Commission was not satisfied the officer’s conduct may have infringed the standards generally expected. The Commission relied on this ground when dismissing 78 complaints (75% of all dismissed complaints this year).

In about half of all complaints, the Commission was satisfied that the complaint (in part or whole) had not been substantiated. This ground was generally exercised where the Commission reviewed relevant recordings, transcripts or reasons for the decision and found that complaint allegation(s) were not supported by those materials.

In about one-third of all complaints, the Commission was satisfied that further investigation of the complaint (in part or whole) was unnecessary or unjustified. Often, this ground was exercised where:

• the Commission reviewed recordings, transcripts or reasons for decision; and
• the reviewed materials supported some or all of the alleged conduct; but
• having regard to all the circumstances of the case, a reasonable member of the community would not consider the officer’s conduct infringed the standards of conduct generally expected.

This year, 66% of complaints were finalised within 6 months. This is an increase from 55% of complaints finalised within that timeframe in the previous year. This demonstrates the impact of continued improvements to the Commission’s intake, triage and early engagement processes.

Of the 111 complaints finalised this year, the average time taken to finalise each complaint was 183 days (six months). The median number of days taken to finalise complaints was lower at 166 days.

Generally, the Commission finalises complaints within six months of receipt. That timeframe is consistent with comparable Australian complaints handling bodies. Notably, of the four complaints that took the longest to finalise:

• three complaints involved additional complexity, and the Commission gave the officer concerned an opportunity to respond to each complaint. Extensions of time in which to give a response were granted in each case; and
• in the fourth complaint, the complainant provided information about their complaint on numerous occasions over a period of more than six months after its receipt.