NCJ Number
173896
Date Published
1997
Length
63 pages
Annotation
The Third National Police Custody Survey was conducted in August 1995 in cooperation with the police agencies of Australia to provide information on the persons taken into custody, the reasons for taking them into custody, the length of time in police custody, and the outcomes of the process.
Abstract
The survey gathered information on every occasion in which a person was taken into police custody and physically placed in a police cell for any period of time at any location during the month. It also covered people who were in police custody at the start of the survey. Results revealed that 22,060 cases of custody occurred during the month. The largest number occurred in Queensland (5,793), followed by Victoria (3,758), Western Australia (3,519), New South Wales (3,498), and South Australia (3,209). A total of 6,686 incidents involved Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders. The 22,060 cases of custody involved 18,779 individuals, including 5,513 indigenous people and 13,266 non-indigenous people. Males made up 87 percent of the incidents of custody. The people taken into custody had an average age of 28 years and a median of 25 years. Fifty-two percent of the persons were held without arrest warrants, 26 percent were held on warrants, and 9 percent were held in protective custody for public drunkenness. Overall, 21 percent were detained because of being found intoxicated in a public place. The individuals spent an average of 19.1 hours and a median of 4.3 hours in cells; a very small proportion were detained for long periods. The number of people held in police lockups has declined during 1992-95, but that most of the change has come from a reduction in the number of non-Aboriginal people held in the cells. Figures, tables, appendix discussing methodology, and 10 references