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Public confidence in the police and the criminal justice system has plunged to its lowest level in more than a decade after backlash over pandemic restrictions, media scrutiny on policing and a spotlight on domestic violence and youth crime.
Just 54 per cent of people were confident that the criminal justice system brought offenders to justice, and just 34 per cent said the system met the needs of victims, according to a survey of 2000 NSW residents by the Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research.
While confidence in the justice system as a whole was down, attitudes towards the NSW Police had the biggest decline from 2019 to 2025. Confidence that police were meeting the needs of victims fell from 70 to 56 per cent, while confidence that cases were dealt with promptly dropped from 66 to 49 per cent.
Confidence in police’s fairness and respect of accused people also dropped, as did confidence that police can bring offenders to justice.
When confidence in the criminal justice system was low, it could impact people’s decision to come forward and report a crime, BOCSAR executive director Jackie Fitzgerald said.
“These justice institutions have considerable power and that power needs some level of accountability, so this is a survey where we can test whether the public perceive that those powers are being appropriately used,” she said.
The report pointed to increased tension in the community during the pandemic, when restrictions on gatherings and travel were left to the police to enforce, as part of the decline. Other possible factors for the fraying in community trust were increased media scrutiny on the actions of police, and a highlighting of issues such as the justice system’s response to domestic violence and youth crime.
BOCSAR found that a perception that crime was rising was hurting the community’s confidence in the police, even when the statistics showed certain crime rates were stable. Half of respondents thought property crime was increasing when in fact it had significantly declined.
“The reality of crime, and people’s experience of crime, is almost as important as people’s perceptions of crime and perceptions of safety,” Fitzgerald said.
It was up to institutions such as the police and courts to bring the public back into their confidences to restore the feelings of safety and trust needed for a civil society to function, she said.
A spokeswoman for NSW Police said trust and confidence in policing was extremely important to the organisation, and that policing was both a challenging and rewarding job.
“As a police force, we are continuously looking at better ways to engage with community, improve training and awareness for officers to ensure community expectations are met,” the spokeswoman said.
The research comes as the NSW Police prepares for the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission to hold public hearings in the coming months as the watchdog investigates the conduct of police officers at February’s protest against the visit of Israeli President Isaac Herzog.
The LECC received a record 800 complaints about the handling of that protest.
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