DODGY DATA 2

POLICE FUDGED SERIOUS CRIMES

THE dodgy data scandal involving Gold Coast police related to serious violent crimes, State Parliament has been told.

The Auditor General’s Office yesterday gave a briefing to the parliament’s legal affairs and community safety committee on its scathing report about police gathering of crime statistics.

In the report, the only example provided of misleading data focused on the withdrawal of property offences on the Coast.

Auditor General Office performance audit services director Darren Brown yesterday revealed why the Coast was chosen as the district which investigators focused on.

After first reviewing crime statistics, the Coast was “neither the best performing or worst performing” but on looking at the credibility of the data it became obvious further investigation was needed.

“We found that officers on the Gold Coast had employed methods aimed at getting victims to withdraw their complaints and increase their clearance rates,” Mr Brown said.

“These related to offences including assaults, both serious and less serious, burglary, stealing and wilful damage offences.”

The Bulletin detailed how senior Coast police had been under pressure from the Government to provide positive news stories after the region recorded a 66 per cent increase in assaults and witnessed several shocking domestic violence slayings.

Auditor General officers identified practices of classifying unsolved offences as unfounded, including pressuring victims to withdraw complaints.

After the report was released, the Police Minister, Attorney General and Police Commissioner were contacted by Coast welfare workers who asked that all sexual assault complaints be reviewed. Women said they “felt pressured to withdraw their SA (sexual assault) complaint” and that police “unfounding” of cases had increased.

MPs at yesterday’s committee meeting said they were shocked to learn that if police could not contact a victim after three telephone calls, the complaint was considered to be unfounded or cleared up.

Police responded to the report by saying the error rate was minimal but criminologists said it was now impossible to use the data.