Bail, DV order checks down despite violence epidemic

NSW police are performing fewer bail and domestic violence order checks, a new online tool shows. (Joel Carrett/AAP PHOTOS)

Police have undertaken fewer bail compliance and domestic violence order checks as NSW grapples with a spate of high-profile incidents.

The state's crime statistics bureau launched a new policing activity dashboard on Thursday, which showed officials performed almost 26,000 fewer bail checks in 2023-24 - a drop of 19.7 per cent from the previous reporting period.

Apprehended domestic violence order (ADVO) checks also dipped by more than 12,000, or 11.2 per cent.

Those drops came as several high-profile cases plagued the state, including the alleged murder of young Forbes mother Molly Ticehurst by her ex-partner.

He was on bail for other, serious domestic violence-related charges at the time.

A NSW Police sign and security camera
NSW police performed almost 26,000 fewer bail checks in 2023-24 than the previous reporting period.

Earlier this year, the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (BOCSAR) reported a noticeable rise in domestic violence-related assaults, sexual offences and intimidation and stalking in the five years to March.

Violence prevention advocates Our Watch also found 34 women were killed by an intimate partner in Australia in 2022-23, up from 27 in 2020-21.

The bureau's executive director Jackie Fitzgerald said the drop in compliance checks could be a work capacity issue for police.

The NSW force was 2279 recruits short of full strength in August.

"The police have got considerable vacancies, so it might be they don't have the staff to do those checks," Ms Fitzgerald told AAP.

"It can also sometimes reflect organisational prioritisation, so they may have made a decision to use their policing time to do other things and downgrade the importance of those things."

Police ankle bracelet
Serious offenders granted bail in NSW must also wear electronic monitoring tags.

Ms Fitzgerald noted the level of other policing activities including strip searches, vehicle searches and move-on directions had all dropped in the last reporting period.

NSW brought in harsher bail laws on July 1- after the reporting period - when the onus was placed on serious domestic violence offenders to show magistrates and judges why they should be released.

Serious offenders granted bail must also wear electronic monitoring tags.

Other data revealed an over-representation of Indigenous people in NSW's policing activities.

While Indigenous people make up three per cent of the NSW population, they accounted for 44 per cent of the state's bail compliance checks, 25 per cent of taser discharges and 20 per cent of person searches.

Police performed 116,835 person searches in 2023-24, down 30 per cent on the previous reporting period.

They found weapons or drugs in 15 per cent of those searches, their highest ratio of "successful" searches in the past five years.

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