Reporting & investigation process

If you report an offence to police, we must give you written confirmation of your report, which includes the name of the police officer who took the report and the name of another officer who you may contact about the report. If giving you written confirmation of the report would place your safety or another person’s safety at risk, police are not required give the written confirmation to you.

Most police officers will provide this information to you on a ‘job card’, which is a card that they write an incident or job number on, along with other relevant information. If requested, you may receive this information in other forms, such as via text message, email or a letter.

Police do not have to provide you with a full copy of your report - if you would like a full copy of your report, you may have to apply under the Freedom of Information Act 1982. Please refer to the Freedom of Information page on the AFP website.

Police must give you information about the criminal justice processes that result from you reporting an offence to police. This information can be found under the Administration of Justice Processes section below.

The Charter of Rights booklet for victims of crime is a useful resource for victims of crime, as it contains all the relevant information you need to know about administration of justice processes within the criminal justice system.

With your consent, police must refer you to a service that provides support or assistance suitable for you and your circumstances. Police should offer you support services appropriate for your matter. If you provide consent, police will usually complete a referral to an organisation called Supportlink, who will allocate your matter to an appropriate service provider. The Victims of Crime team will also contact you to offer support services appropriate to your matter. The relevant service provider will contact you directly. Police will not find out what you discuss with the service provider.

Police may also refer you to other support services or information that may be useful to you. If you do not initially consent to support services but change your mind at any point in time, you can inform the police officer investigating your matter. It is never too late to be referred to support services.

As a victim of crime, you can report an offence to police by:

• calling 131 444;
• calling 000 in an emergency;
• attending a police station and speaking with police there; or
• reporting historical sexual offences online
• making a report to Crime Stoppers via the online reporting form. You can remain anonymous

When a victim of crime initially reports an offence to police, our role is to obtain enough detail from you to determine the initial course of action, especially in relation to your safety.

When you contact police, we will talk you through what is involved in an investigation, including alternative options, such as making an information report.

An information report is for recording purposes only. Police will not investigate the incident but may use the information for intelligence purposes.

When police undertake an investigation, you may be asked to provide a statement. Police need your consent, or the consent of your legal guardian, to take your statement. Your statement may be taken in a written format, or recorded in an audio or video format.

During your statement, you will be asked to state that you are prepared to provide the same information to a Court as a witness and that the statements you have made are true to the best of your knowledge and belief.

It is an offence to state something to police that you know to be false or do not believe to be true.

As part of an investigation, police may conduct inquiries with other witnesses and gather evidence from a wide range of sources. The purpose of this investigation is to establish whether there is sufficient evidence to bring an alleged offender before the Court.

If police believe the alleged offender (known as the ‘defendant’ or the ‘accused’ once Court processes have commenced) committed the offence and there are no other reasonable explanations, we may commence a criminal prosecution.  In addition to this, police must be satisfied the evidence negates any claims by the alleged offender that would lawfully excuse the alleged offender from their actions (such as defences).

Police make the decision to prosecute an alleged offender based on the evidence that has been gathered. If there is insufficient evidence to put an alleged offender before the Court, we will advise you of our decision and close the investigation.

Not all investigations proceed to court. This does not mean we don’t believe you. It simply means we do not have enough evidence to meet the required level for criminal prosecution. If this happens, we will talk to you about it and explain the reasons why. If new information or evidence comes to hand, police can reactivate the investigation or update the investigation report with the new information.

Offences with time limits

It is important to understand that some offences have time limits to bring an alleged offender before the Court. We can provide you with advice about the time limits that apply to your complaint.

Once police decide there is sufficient evidence to put an alleged offender before the Court, a decision will be made as to how to bring them before the Court.

Police can:

• arrest the alleged offender and charge them with an offence;
  This may happen when police suspect an alleged offender will not appear before Court unless they are made to, or where police suspect a defendant is likely to continue offending unless arrested. Note: arrest is when police take a person into custody to the ACT Watch House (or other place) where they are charged by an ACT Policing Sergeant and either given police bail, or kept in custody and taken to Court at the next possible opportunity.
• have the alleged offender summonsed to appear before Court;
  A summons is a document that orders a person to go to Court on a certain date to respond to the charges they are being accused of. If the person doesn’t go to Court when they are required to, or if they cannot be found to be given the summons, a warrant may be issued by the Court for their arrest. Once police have requested a person be summonsed to Court, it can take several weeks for that person to be given the summons and it can then take several more weeks or months before the Court date.
• issue the alleged offender with a Court Attendance Notice (CAN);
  a CAN is a document that orders a person to attend Court on a certain date to respond to charges they are being accused of. This document can be given to a defendant by police immediately to ensure there is no chance of being unable to locate them, similar to the summons process. However, the Court date can still be several weeks or months away.
• issue the alleged offender with a Criminal Infringement Notice (CIN);
  CINs are fines that can be issued by police for certain offences. If a defendant does not pay a fine, they may have to attend Court to resolve the matter. Offences committed against an individual cannot usually be resolved by way of CIN;
• issue the alleged offender with a Traffic Infringement Notice (TIN).
  If the offence committed is a traffic offence, police may issue a TIN. If a defendant does not pay a TIN, they may be required to attend Court. Sometimes defendants can be summonsed or arrested for traffic matters rather than issued a TIN.

Police can also resolve a matter by way of criminally cautioning an alleged offender. A criminal caution is an appropriate alternative to criminally charging a person for an offence in certain circumstances, including where:

• the alleged offender has not previously been charged with an offence;
• the circumstances of the incident are considered suitable for resolving without referring charges to the ACT Law Courts;
• other support processes and mechanisms, such as family support, in combination with a police caution, are identified as appropriate in addressing any criminal conduct.

An alternative method of dealing with the complaint is through Restorative Justice.

If a defendant is granted bail, they are released from custody on the condition they sign a document promising to attend Court on a certain date to face charges against them. They may be required to agree to certain conditions, including attending a police station on certain days of the week, or not contacting/approaching certain people or places.

If a defendant is arrested by police, they may be bailed at the ACT Watch House until their scheduled Court appearance date, which may be weeks or months in the future. If police do not bail a defendant, they will remain in custody and will appear before the Court at the next available opportunity; usually within one or two days. The defendant will then have an opportunity to apply to the Court for bail.

If police believe a defendant should not be granted bail, we will prepare a document outlining the reasons why. Police must consider your concerns, as a victim of crime, in relation to a defendant being bailed. If you have any concerns for your safety and feel that you need protection from the defendant, you should advise police.

A lawyer from the office of the ACT Director of Public Prosecutions (ACT DPP), known as the Prosecutor, will present the Court with police arguments. The Court will decide if bail is appropriate and will determine what conditions the defendant should comply with whilst on bail.

Victims of crime will be advised of any relevant bail conditions, particularly in regards to family violence matters.

If a defendant disobeys the conditions of the orders made by police or the Court, then the defendant may be arrested and put before the Court again. The defendant may have their bail conditions changed as a result, or the Court may order them to be taken into custody until their next Court date. If you are aware of a defendant breaching their bail conditions, you should advise police.

A defendant retains the right to be able to apply for bail if they remain in custody. Police or ACT DPP must notify you of any subsequent bail applications by the defendant and the result of those applications. Police and ACT DPP should ensure your concerns relating to the defendant are expressed to the Court in any bail applications.

Once police have commenced prosecution against a defendant, responsibility for prosecuting a defendant is taken over by ACT DPP. Police are responsible for collecting evidence and preparing the Court brief, but are represented by ACT DPP in the Court. 
When initially bringing a defendant before the Court, police prepare a statement of facts. This statement is a summary of the evidence that police have gathered and are able to present to the Court.

When a defendant attends Court, they are provided with the opportunity to enter a plea. They can plead guilty; meaning they agree with the statement of facts and admit they committed the offence, or they can plead not guilty; meaning they do not agree with the statement of facts and they either do not admit they committed the offence, or they want to present a defence admitting they committed the offence but that it was not their fault. If a defendant pleads guilty, the Court is responsible for deciding on the sentence. In this circumstance, you, as a victim of crime, can provide the Court with a Victim Impact Statement.
If a defendant pleads not guilty, the Court will set the matter down for hearing. Police will then prepare a full brief of evidence to go before the Court. If police have not yet taken your statement, we will request a statement from you and other witnesses to complete our brief.

There can be a considerable time delay from when a defendant pleads not guilty to when the Court will conduct a hearing of evidence. In some cases, a hearing may occur more than a year after the initial appearance. The date of a hearing is decided by the Court and will depend on how long the hearing is expected to take and when the Court is available.

Most cases will be heard in the Magistrates Court. However, some serious matters will be heard in the Supreme Court. Victims of crime will be required to give evidence as part of the court case. You may need to give evidence multiple times during a Court case. You will be asked questions by ACT DPP, the defendant’s lawyer and in some cases the defendant themselves.
A matter may need to go to Court more than once and you may need to give evidence on each of these occasions. This may occur if a jury cannot decide whether a defendant is guilty or not, or if something goes wrong during the hearing and the Court decides it is not fair to continue the trial. This may also occur if a matter is appealed by ACT DPP or the defendant and must be heard at Court again.

Giving evidence in Court can be difficult and traumatic. To alleviate this, you may be able to give evidence from a room away from the defendant known as a ‘remote witness room’, request to have a support animal with you, or make use of several other aids or adjustment options available to victims of crime. If you believe these adjustments or aids would benefit you, you can speak to police or ACT DPP who can organise them to support you. Ultimately, the Court decides whether these aids or adjustments are possible in your case. If you would like support services before, during or after giving evidence, speak with the police officer investigating your matter who can refer you to appropriate services.

ACT DPP must inform you of all key events that take place throughout the Court process.

At the conclusion of the hearing, the Court will determine if the evidence presented to the Court is sufficient to find the defendant guilty of the offence.

For a Court to find a defendant guilty of an offence, ACT DPP must have proved that the defendant has committed an offence and disproved any defences beyond reasonable doubt. This is called the ‘burden of proof’. To achieve this, ACT DPP will use evidence provided by police, as well as the evidence provided by witnesses (including you), in the Court room.

Beyond a reasonable doubt does not mean beyond any doubt at all, but it is a high burden and can be difficult to achieve. A defendant only needs to prove any defences on the balance of probabilities, which means the Court needs to believe it is more likely than not that the defence is legitimate. The police and ACT DPP will work with you to try to achieve the best outcome possible.

If a defendant is found guilty, the Court will then determine an appropriate penalty. You will have an opportunity to provide the Court with a Victim Impact Statement, which the Court may take into account in sentencing.

The Court might order a defendant to spend time in jail, or convict them of an offence but not spend time in jail. Being convicted of an offence means a defendant will have a criminal record that says they are found guilty of an offence. Sometimes a Court can order that a person is convicted but that the conviction should not be recorded on the person’s criminal record. The Court can also choose to order the defendant to pay a fine, or release them on a ‘Good Behaviour Order’ or an ‘Intensive Correction Order’, both of which mean the person must not commit further offences and may need to comply with other conditions, otherwise there is the risk they will be sent to prison. The Court may also order a combination of the above.

You can provide a VIS if you are:

• a victim of the offence;
• a person who has parental responsibility for a victim of the offence;
• a close family member of a victim;
• a carer for a victim; or
• a person with an intimate personal relationship to a victim.

Where someone other than a primary victim makes a statement, the primary victim must sign to say they do not object to the VIS being made on their behalf.

You should not include a detailed description of the offence, as the Court will already be aware of what happened through the evidence given by police to the ACT DPP. You should not talk about your opinions on the sentence you believe the defendant should be given, or use any offensive, threatening or harassing language. You should not talk about other offences you have experienced. It is best to try and focus on the impacts the offence (currently before the Court) has had on you. If ACT DPP holds concerns about anything you have written in your VIS, they will let you know. You should try to give your VIS to the ACT DPP at least one week before sentencing is due to take place at Court.

Your VIS can be as long or as short as you would like, and you can write it in whichever format you choose. You can add to, change or withdraw your VIS at any time prior to it being provided to the Court.

It is important to know that a copy of your VIS will be seen by the prosecutor, the defendant and their lawyer (if they have one) as well as the Magistrate or Judge. It is important to note that you may be cross-examined on your VIS. Where a defendant is self-represented, they must seek permission from the Court to cross-examine you about your VIS.
A VIS can be read out loud in the Court room if you would like it to be. You can do this yourself or the prosecutor or another person you choose can read it for you. If you don’t want it to be read aloud, the written version can be handed to the Magistrate or Judge.

You can ask for help in completing your VIS. However it must be in your own words. You can seek assistance from the following people:

• ACT DPP on 02 6207 5399;
• ACT Policing Victim of Crime team on 02 5126 9113;
• Victim Support ACT on 1800 822 272;
• Domestic Violence Crisis Service on 02 6280 0900;
• Canberra Rape Crisis Centre on 02 6247 2525.

The VIS form and further information is available on The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions website.