The Law Handbook 2024

Chapter 12.4: Complaints against Victoria Police 1145 Supporting your complaint with freedom of information documents If you chose to delay lodging your complaint, you can support your complaint with documents obtained from the police through a freedom of information (FoI) request. The process for making a FoI request is set out in Chapter 12.3: Freedom of information law. Which documents you request through FoI depend on the nature of your complaint. The types of documents you can request include: • use of force forms; • police diary notes, patrol duty return sheets, and initial action pads; • statements; • briefs of evidence; • charge sheets; • CCTV and audio recordings from police body worn cameras, divisional vans, police cells, and police station charge counters; • LEAP incident reports; and • custody modules. Your letter requesting documents under freedom of information should be addressed to the Victoria Police – Freedom of Information Office (see ‘Contacts’ at the end of this chapter). Some categories of documents may be exempt under FoI laws, which means you may not be able to obtain them through an FoI request. These include documents affecting personal privacy, certain law enforcement documents and internal working documents. Release of documents may also be denied in circumstances where disclosing documents is contrary to the public interest. Under FoI law, Victoria Police has 30 days to produce documents requested under FoI. However, in practice, FoI requests take many months to process. If you request documents under FoI you should be prepared to wait for six months or longer to receive them. You may be able to make a complaint regarding your FoI request to the Office of the Victorian Information Commissioner (see ‘Contacts’ at the end of this chapter). Investigation of complaints Regardless of where you lodge your complaint (i.e. with the police or with IBAC), in almost all circumstances, it will be a police officer who investigates your complaint. A complaint made directly to the police will be handled according to how serious the PSC considers your allegations to be. A complaint of serious misconduct (e.g. the alleged conduct amounts to a criminal offence that is punishable by imprisonment, or is disgraceful, or is likely to damage the reputation of the police force) is required to be investigated formally. Police have the discretion to not investigate less serious complaints, but to deal with them as ‘customer service issues’. These complaints (e.g. allegations of rudeness) are usually handled quickly and informally at a local or district police management level. Police also have the discretion to dismiss trivial complaints. If you think the PSC has wrongly characterised your complaint as trivial and wrongly dismissed your complaint, you can contact IBAC. Police investigations usually involve at least one interview between the police officer who is investigating the complaint and the personmaking the complaint. You do not have to give an interview, but it usually helps your complaint if you do. The length of the interview depends on the seriousness of the complaint, how clearly the complainant explains the issue they are complaining about, and the complexity of the scenario into which an investigation is being undertaken. Subsequently, police officers will sometimes interview witnesses and make various inquiries. Sometimes, legal and scientific advice is obtained. Once an investigation is completed (this typically takes several months), the results of the investigation are referred to the officer in charge of the PSC, who decides whether or not the investigation has substantiated the complaint. The outcome of the investigation may also be reported to IBAC. Outcome of the complaint Understanding the letter about the decision At the conclusion of the investigation you will receive a letter stating the outcome of the investigation. The letter usually includes little information about why the decision was made. In the letter, one of the terms in the table below will be used to describe the outcome of the investigation.