Territory Stories

Annual Report 2017-2018 OmbudsmanNT

Details:

Title

Annual Report 2017-2018 OmbudsmanNT

Other title

Tabled paper 934

Collection

Tabled Papers for 13th Assembly 2016 - 2020; Tabled Papers; ParliamentNT

Date

2018-10-31

Description

Deemed

Notes

Made available by the Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory under Standing Order 240. Where copyright subsists with a third party it remains with the original owner and permission may be required to reuse the material.

Language

English

Subject

Tabled papers

File type

application/pdf

Use

Copyright

Copyright owner

See publication

License

https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2019C00042

Parent handle

https://hdl.handle.net/10070/304663

Citation address

https://hdl.handle.net/10070/363371

Page content

16 Acknowledging that a number of recommendations require involvement from multiple agencies and that overall implementation is being managed by the whole-of-government Reform Management Office, I requested an update on implementation of police-related recommendations. In response, NT Police advised: A detailed Business Case Proposal for the establishment of a specialist and highly trained Youth Division similar to New Zealand Police has been submitted for the consideration of the Northern Territory Police, Fire and Emergency Services Executive in line with Recommendation 25.1.2. Within this Business Case is a proposal to further expand the position of Aboriginal Community Police Officers to include the position of Youth Diversion Officer in line with Recommendation 25.1.1. A detailed analysis of existing Youth Justice Training identified the opportunity to create five separate training packages to upskill NTP officers. Specifically, in reference to Recommendation 25.1.5, a full day training session for all police officers will be delivered across the months of October and November, 2018 focussing on youth justice, including components about childhood and adolescent brain development, the impact of cognitive and intellectual disabilities including FASD and the effects of trauma, including intergenerational trauma. In respect to Recommendation 25.1.3, one of the aforementioned training packages to be developed will be an intensive week long course for police officers working in Youth Justice, allowing these officers to be provided a fit for purpose professional development opportunity that allows them to specialise within the Youth Justice Field. A review of charging practices over the last three years with respect to children and young people has commenced in line with Recommendation 25.2.5. An organisational wide instruction has been disseminated by broadcast reinforcing police need to take all reasonable steps to obtain the contact details of a responsible adult for a young person taken into police custody and provide those details to the young person's legal representative as soon as possible. This meets Recommendation 25.33. An organisational wide instruction has been disseminated by broadcast reinforcing police only arrest a child or young person for a breach of bail where the breach occurs as a result of or in connection with further offending and after police have considered and rejected as inappropriate issuing a summons. This meets Recommendation 25.20.b. Police have met with and provided detailed feedback on the draft protocol being developed by Territory Families pertaining to the out of home care service sector and interaction with the police to address management and response to criminal behaviour in the out of home care environment. This has contributed to significant progress towards meeting Recommendation 35.2. My Office will continue to monitor implementation of police-related recommendations in so far as they relate to matters within our jurisdiction. CRIMINAL INVESTIGATIONS I have also made preliminary enquiries with NT Police in relation to its response to the various allegations of a criminal nature that have arisen from matters considered by the Royal Commission. In that regard, I was provided with a copy of the NT Police Youth Detention Task Force report on A review of Northern Territory Police involvements in Youth Detention Centres 2006-2016.