The Ombudsman’s latest report on SA Police and their implementation of his Office’s recommendations has found them carrying out their general compliance within the laws and operating with “the norm.”
In his report Audit of compliance with the Criminal Law (Forensic Procedures) Act 2007 Deputy Ombudsman Steven Strelan said the audit related to the period 1 July 2021 to 30 June 2022.
“As was the case for the 2020-2021 audit period, the audit results showed that compliance continues to be the norm,” Mr Strelan said.
“Most statutory requirements appear to have been fully complied with and where this was not the case, compliance against the relevant provisions was more common than not,” he said.
He acknowledged SA Police’s co-operation with the audit, saying he was pleased to note the Police continued to take steps to implement previous recommendations.
“The audit identified that there is scope for improvement to ensure compliance with the legislation in terms of actual compliance or recording compliance,” Mr Strelan said.
He said the possible improvements included clarifying the distinction between a ‘relevant person’ for the purposes of consenting to volunteers and victims; Amending references to gender to ensure consistency with current usage; Ensuring copies of applications for suspect procedure orders be provided to the suspect; Ensuring introductions on audio-visual recordings are properly conducted; and Ensuring access to forensic procedures is restricted to those persons reasonably necessary or required by statute.
“Almost half of the recommendations simply require reminding officers of their obligations,” Mr Strelan said.
“I also provided a draft of this report to Forensic Science SA, but did not seek comment from Forensic Science SA on the basis that the report did not make any comments or recommendations relevant to it,” he said.
“As noted in last year’s report, compliance with the Act has greatly improved since the first audit conducted by Ombudsman SA in 2018. I commend SA Police for this and for implementing recommendations made in previous audits.
The Deputy Ombudsman made 11 recommendations to improve the police practice.
His 56-page audit report can be accessed at this PS News link.
