Police Civilianisation

The Hon. S.G. WADE (14:47): Further supplementary: I understand that a civil prosecutor in preparation of a case may decide whether or not a case was going to proceed, because they are not matters handed down by the DPP. They might also have a better, or worse, success rate when actually before the court in dealing with matters. One would expect police prosecutors and civil prosecutors to have different cultures and different backgrounds. What that means in terms of propensity to prosecute successfully in the case and general handling might well also feed back into the cost savings. It might actually be more expensive if a prosecutor is more likely to pursue a matter than a police prosecutor—it may actually cost the police force more, not less.

The Hon. P. MALINAUSKAS (Minister for Police, Minister for Correctional Services, Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Road Safety) (14:48): I don't have any data at hand regarding specifics in terms of analysis about likelihood of proceeding and so forth. I am happy to seek that information, if it exists. I would say a couple of things: the first thing is that the advice I have received regarding how this program is working—and this is something I have spoken to the police commissioner about on quite a few occasions—is that it is working exceedingly well and that there hasn't been any compromise in terms of the justice outcomes that occur as a result of this effort.

The PRESIDENT: Order! Can I ask the photographer over there to only take photos of people who are on their feet? Thanks.

The Hon. P. MALINAUSKAS: As a consequence, it is a small reform exercise that has worked exceedingly well. That has been the advice I have received up until this point. In respect of whether or not there is any specific data that demonstrates that, I am happy to seek it.

The second thing I would say with respect to this is that of course the most important thing to ask ourselves when reforms like this are being undertaken is: what is the justice outcome, rather than just the cost one? It is important that when we are talking about prosecutions being the responsibility of SAPOL, often there is potentially a victim involved and, of course, that person wants to see that they get the best possible outcome in terms of justice rather than realise a cost benefit in terms of whether or not a matter proceeds. It is about making sure we have the best justice outcome. Like I said, my advice is that that has worked quite well up until this point, notwithstanding that there is a potential cost saving in having a non-sworn officer conduct matters such as these.