By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim
Rates of reported crime have been trending downwards in New South Wales for the past twenty years, yet this hasn’t resulted in the notorious backlog in criminal cases waiting to proceed having decreased, as, over the last decade or so, the New South Wales Police Force has been increasing the number of persons of interest they take legal action against within the 90 day period following the reporting of a criminal offence.
Released on 23 April 2025, the NSW Bureau of Crimes Statistics and Research (BOCSAR) report, Trends in Police Legal Action Rates in New South Wales: 2009 to 2023, looked at 11 specific major criminal offence categories in this state, and over the timeframe of the current study, the 90-day legal action rate had increased significantly within nine of these offence categories.
BOCSAR senior research officer Neil Donnelly notes that recent decades of steadily decreasing crime is a phenomenon that’s occurred across most of the western world. But in the US, the police legal action rate has too dropped alongside levels of crime, and, in particular, violent crime, and while this does indicate reduced court wait times, it can also lead to a number of undesirable consequences.
The new BOCSAR report outlines that increased rates in police taking legal action against suspects indicates that state law enforcement is successfully identifying alleged offenders and then attempting to prosecute them, which can act as a substantial deterrent against potential future offenders, and these increased rates likely “improve public confidence in the criminal justice system” as well.
So, unlike their North American counterparts, NSW police officers appear to have taken a reduction in crime rates, not as reason to allow judicial officers and criminal defence lawyers to kick back, rather in this state, declining rates in both violent and property crime have permitted police to give greater attention to specific criminal investigations, resulting in higher levels of action taken.
Crime down, prosecutions up
The NSW Local Court website provides a list of criminal case time standards that it aims to achieve in regard to its caseload, which includes 95 percent of summary criminal matters being finalised within 6 months, and 100 percent completed within 12. But when a defendant enters a guilty plea, 95 percent of those cases should be cleared in 3 months and 100 percent within 6 months.
In terms of the NSW District Court, it was reported in 2022 that from arrest to standing trial to sentencing, the process takes, on average, 690 days, or almost two years, while with the NSW Supreme Court, which handles the most serious criminal matters in the state, the wait times are considerably less than those relating to the lower courts in relation to criminal matters.
For the current study, Donnelly considered data collected via the NSW Police Force’s Computerised Operational Policing System (COPS) covering 1 January 2009 until 31 December 2023, and in particular, the figures relating to number of incidents, people proceeded against and the number and percentage of incidents that police legal action was taken against within 90 days of reporting.
The number of criminal incidents captured was 3,647,381, while 910,988 offenders were involved in the study.
The report clarifies that “a legal action is defined as any Court Attendance Notice (CAN), fine (Criminal Infringement Notice) or formal diversion under the Young Offenders Act 1997 (NSW)”, which includes youth justice conferences, cautions and warnings.
This data was comprised in relation to eleven major offence categories, which were divided into violent offences and property crimes.
Violent offences included domestic violence (DV) related assault, non-DV assault, robbery, murder, sexual assault, and ‘sexual touching, sexual act and other sexual offences’. And as for property offences, these comprised of break and enter dwelling, break and enter non-dwelling, motor vehicle theft and steal from motor vehicle.
The findings of the report
BOSCAR found that the 90-day legal action rate has spiked for nine of the eleven major offence categories considered. This was greatest in relation to robbery, malicious damage to property and break and enter non-dwelling. There was also a rise in steal from motor vehicle, non-DV assault and sexual touching, sexual acts and other sexual offences.
However, in terms of murder, there has been no significant increase in legal action taken against suspects since 2009, whilst as for proceeding against sexual assault, the percentage of cases police took legal action against dropped significantly over the 15 years of the study.
The current findings are consistent with an earlier BOCSAR inquiry, that found there is an increasing risk of apprehension, especially around property crimes, while in terms of rising legal actions taken, developments, like the National Criminal Investigation DNA database, improved forensic procedures and more time available for police to spend on inquiries, have led to the rise in proceedings.
“These improvements are likely to generate benefits for both victims, who feel that offenders are being appropriately prosecuted and punished for their crimes, and potential offenders, who may be deterred from crime because they perceive it more likely that they will be caught by police,” the report outlines, adding that “it may also increase public confidence in the criminal justice system”.
The fifteen years of police data was also notable for the increased rates of reporting around DV assault and sexual touching, sexual act and other sexual offences, as well as sexual assault. Increased police action taken in relation to the initial two categories has resulted in more suspects being prosecuted, although the same time frame has seen a decrease in legal action against sexual assault.
Criminal court backlog continues
According to Donnelly, the upward trend in property crimes and the growth in legal action rates have not caused “significant growth in criminal court workload”, because the overall fall in such crime during the last 15 years, has been even greater than the rise in police legal actions.
Yet, this cannot be said for the rise in DV assault and sexual touching, sexual acts and other sexual offences, as in the case of these offences the rise in criminal incidents being reported and the improvements in police taking legal action against them, has resulted in an increase in court load in regard to these crimes, with more alleged perpetrators being brought before the courts.
“Across most offence categories in NSW, there has been a consistent and long-term upward trend in the police legal action rate,” Donnelly continued. “While this may have increased public confidence in policing and deterred offenders, this higher rate of police proceedings means that the criminal court caseload has not decreased in line with the large drop in property crime observed.”
“The higher volume of DV assaults and sex offences combined with the rise in legal action rates for these offences has also impacted court caseload,” the BOCSAR researcher added in conclusion.
