Review of Gatekeeping Role in Young Offenders Act


Barrier 6 - Police have insufficient access to information about the legislation and insufficient training to understand what is required to comply with the legislation and its objects

Training to date

99. In excess of 14,000 uniformed police officers needed to receive training in relation to the Act. Providing high quality training for such a large number of people is a time consuming and costly exercise, but one which is essential if the Act is to be effectively implemented. Training for police in relation to the Act consisted of several local and central initiatives. The initiatives implemented within Local Area Commands consisted of providing police with reading materials, training sessions, booster sessions and posters. Centrally, the Service published articles in the Police Service Weekly, broadcast Police TV segments and distributed brochures across the state. JT Jarratt, Deputy Commissioner, Operations set out the responsibilities of police officers in relation to the Act in Police Service Circular 98/13 which was distributed on 30 March 1998, just before the Act came into effect. The main central training initiative was the development by the NSW Police Academy of a Mandatory Continuing Police Education Package. All operational police had to complete the training before 30 June 1999 to receive their annual salary increment. The package was sent to all Education and Development Officers for them to deliver at local training sessions. It contained numerous overheads which addressed the principles and provisions of the Act.

Concerns about information and training

100. The Police Service acknowledged that this kind of training is not ideal but they were unable to offer more comprehensive training given the number of people to be trained and the limited resources available. Feedback from stakeholders has indicated that the training may not have been as effective or widespread as was intended. One YLO made the following comment:

Internal police training - nil since when YOA came out. At that time the lecture was only 10 minutes.

101. Because the training did not have to be completed until the end of the 1998/99 financial year; many officers did not receive the training until more than 12 months after the Act came into effect. Pressure to complete the training so that officers could receive their salary increment that the training was often delivered in a rushed and cursory fashion.

102. The Police Service has recognised the need to provide SYOs with access to information and training. Initially, all YLOs were trained. YLOs from each of the eleven police regions, as well as the conference administrator working with them, have been trained recently to deliver training to other SYOs in their own regions. This training will be delivered jointly by the YLO and the conference administrator over the next six months and may address the following concerns expressed by several police officers:

Training for SYOs will greatly improve referral rates.

Training for SYOs must be mandatory and form part of OCRs.

I believe that each LAC Youth Liaison Officer should be responsible for training the Specialist Youth Officers for his or her LAC. Not how it is at the moment.

103.One concern from YLOs was that police were not sufficiently aware of the kinds of offences which are capable of being dealt with under the Act. Some of their comments were as follows:

Make a list of all the offences that can be dealt with by a warning/caution/conference. If the offence does not appear on the list then it can’t be dealt with by these options.

Can you list all the offences that should or can be given warnings for, cautions for and conference for. We need some direction and some examples of these offences.

104. Discussions with members of the Police Service revealed that the Youth Justice Conference Directorate and conference administrators had tried to compile such a list but did not complete the task when they realised that there were over 20,000 offences involved. Even though there are thousands of offences it should be possible to either make a generic list of the more common kinds of offences capable of being dealt with under the Act and/or make a list of the most common kinds of offences not capable of being dealt with under the Act. If police officers are not sure which offences are subject to the Act, then this will be a fundamental barrier to its implementation.

Proposed training

105. The Police Service has advised that:

An internal marketing strategy has been developed to promote the Act. This strategy involves various components:

• Police Service Weekly – three articles to run across a six-week period. Two of these articles specifically deal with the Act and the third article promotes the role of the YLOs.
• Police TV – two Police TV segments (over two weeks) have been developed (aired 11/8/99 and 18/8/99). These two segments reinforce the need to consider the provisions of the Act, the need to use the Legal Aid Hotline and promote the benefits of diversion generally.

106. The Police Service has recognised that providing information and training in the implementation of the Act is crucial if consistent and high quality decisions are to be made. YLOs appear to have received good quality training, but are only now in a position to pass on the benefit of their knowledge and experience to other SYOs in their region. Since the Act has already been in operation for 18 months, this has come rather late. One suggestion was that SYOs should not make decisions under the Act until they have received specific training and observed at least three conferences. While this is a good idea in theory, it may not be practical if there is no other SYO available to make decisions in the meantime. Most investigating police officers received only very basic training through the Mandatory Continuing Police Education Package. Since they are the ones responsible for all initial decisions about whether to warn or caution it is critical that they receive more training about the Act.

Limitations of training

106. Although access to information and training is recognised as an essential way of improving the consistency and quality of decisions under the Act, the limitations of formal written information and training must also be acknowledged. The following quotes from Goldsmith make this point:

Because the rules are passed on by experienced street-level police officers engaged in ‘real’ police work, their significance to the recent recruit is enhanced and legitimised. In terms of communication . . . the internalisation of these rules is accomplished by apprenticeship rather than through formal training. Goldsmith A, (1990) “Taking Police Culture Seriously: Police Discretion and the Limits of the Law” 1 Policing and Society 91-114 at 95

Attendance at conferences

108. Another strategy to encourage investigating officers to apply the Act is for them to attend youth justice conferences. Attendance at youth justice conferences is one way of helping police to understand how such conferences work and, hopefully, decreasing any resistance they may have to referring matters for conference The Youth Justice Conferencing Directorate advised that at least one police officer has attended 893 (or 68%) of the 1322 conferences held since the Act came into force. Rates of police attendance varied significantly from region to region. Some of these variations may be due to the length of travelling time involved in attending conferences. For example in the Wagga Wagga region police attended 34 % of conferences whereas in the Chatswood region police attended 92% of conferences. Although many appear to be willing to do so, the following comment indicates that short notice has been a problem in some cases.

It is very difficult to get arresting police to conferences due to short notice being given about when they are being held. Not enough notice, convenors (some) give me 1½ weeks notice and even in one case 2 days notice of conference. Firstly get police to fax their availability to convenor before deciding on date.

109. The Act prescribes that a conference must, if practicable be held no later than 21 days after the referral for the conference is received and not less than 10 days after notice is given to the child. s 43 This makes the giving of longer notice periods to police difficult. The Youth Justice Conferencing Directorate advised that their Procedures Manual suggests that the convenor “ask key participants to nominate times and dates at which they would be unable to attend a conference.” The manual could be amended to emphasise the need to give police officers as much notice as possible. Even if this is done, the Directorate has advised that their first consideration is to schedule conferences to suit the young person and the victim.

RECOMMENDATION

The Police Service should:
• organise further comprehensive training for investigating police officers who are likely to make decisions under the Act. This could be planned to coincide with further amendments to the Act which are planned to come into effect in April 2000. This training should include comprehensive consideration of the cross cultural issues which arise in implementing the Act;


• compile a document to be used as a guide for police officers in deciding which offences can be dealt with under the Act;


• provide regular training for SYOs to keep them up to date. If practicable, SYOs should not make decisions under the Act until they have been trained; and


• encourage police to attend conferences where they have been the investigating officer.