By Poppy Morandin and Jimmy Singh. NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller has sought to defend the actions of police officers involved in the wrongful arrest of NRL player Curtis Scott. The bodycam footage of the arrest shown in court sparked outrage, with it depicting Scott, who was passed out drunk at the foot of ...continue reading
By Poppy Morandin. Recent release of crime statistics detailing a quarterly update for this year, have revealed that crime across most of NSW has remained stable or fallen in the two years to June 2020. A major exception to this finding was within the crime category of sexual assault, which has risen 9.4% over ...continue reading
By Poppy Morandin. A proposed bill by the Federal Government may effectively further liken the experience of refugees in detention centres to individuals within corrective centres. The Migration Amendment (Prohibiting Items in Immigration Detention Facilities) Bill 2020 will allow mobile phones and other internet-capable devices to be deemed “prohibited items”, the searching of detainees ...continue reading
There is an available legislative framework for a NSW court to determine criminal proceedings where the accused or defendant has mental health issues relevant to the case. This legislative framework is echoed in The Mental Health (Forensic Provisions) Act 1990 (NSW) (‘The Act’). It is a response to the increasing contact with the criminal ...continue reading
By Poppy Morandin. There are reportedly 70 inmates in lockdown within Silverwater Correctional Complex after coming into close contact with a staff member who has tested positive for COVID-19. Within their advocacy efforts, The Greens have issued an open letter to Anthony Roberts, Minister for Corrections detailing the “significant concerns…about the lockdown at Silverwater ...continue reading
By Poppy Morandin and Jimmy Singh. Despite a strong campaign to raise the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 14, the decision has been deferred to 2021, following concerns that further work needs to be done regarding processes and services for children who exhibit offending behaviour. The issue was discussed at the meeting ...continue reading
By Poppy Morandin. Following recent weeks in which Indigenous deaths in custody have been at the forefront of discussion, an inquest has heard that a treating nurse of an Indigenous man who died in his cell at Tamworth Correctional Centre was not informed of his seizures. In September 2017, Tane Chatfield died following being ...continue reading
By Poppy Morandin and Jimmy Singh. It has been revealed that NSW Police have set a target to detect almost 300,000 crimes this year and are using area-specific goals to achieve this result. The approach covers a number of detections in numerous categories of crime including theft, robbery, sexual assault, and drug detection. The ...continue reading
In NSW, a police officer is allowed to use force when exercising their lawful powers. However, it isn’t that simple. According to section 230 of Law Enforcement (Powers and Responsibilities) Act 2002 (NSW), police are allowed to use such force as is reasonably necessary for purposes of exercising one of their powers as a ...continue reading
By Poppy Morandin & Jimmy Singh. Redfern Legal Centre in collaboration with Slater and Gordon have recently announced their intention to mount a class action against NSW Police in relation to the unlawful utilisation of search powers, particularly strip searches. They seek to obtain compensation for the supposed thousands of individuals that have been ...continue reading