14 December 2004
Facts About Crime Stats
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Peter Toyne MLA
Minister for Justice
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Minister for Justice Dr Peter Toyne has urged the Opposition to come clean on crime statistics.
Dr Toyne said the Opposition was misleading to suggest that figures from the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions provide an accurate picture of crime in the Territory.
“The fact is that the NT Quarterly Crime Statistics provide the most accurate way of assessing crime levels,” Dr Toyne said.
“A statistician uses the Police PROMIS system to record every crime reported, every quarter.
“Looking at each of these for the Territory, we can clearly see that crime has not only fallen, but has fallen at rates that outstrip the rest of Australia .
“Obviously the Opposition doesn’t applaud any drops in the crime rate and in fact the CLP will not make a commitment to match our openness in revealing the rates of crime in the Territory.”
Dr Toyne said any suggestion that the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions files may provide a better guide to crime rates in the Northern Territory was simply wrong.
“The DPP has adopted a new way of counting matters for the basis of performance reporting and rather than counting each prosecution matter, files are now counted at each stage they go through.”
For example, one reported crime can result in four files being opened:
- One file when the police seek an opinion on whether to proceed
- One file for the committal or summary hearing
- One file for the trial or plea
- One file for the Supreme Court Appeal
“Under such a regime, a distorted picture would be produced and results would be unreliable, and for all intents and purposes – useless,” Dr Toyne said.