Summary
Key findings
• Across the selected offences, two regional trends and five metropolitan trends would have been less favourable if rejected incidents had been included. [See Table 1]
• There was an 8.8 per cent downtrend in total rejected incidents in the 24 months to June 2023, with 4.2 per cent of all incidents rejected in the 12 months to June 2023. [See Table 2]
• Prohibited and regulated weapons offences had an upward trend in rejected incidents (31.8%). [See Table 2]
• Eight offences had a downward trend in rejected incidents: Domestic violence related assault (down 18.8%), Non-domestic violence related assault (-13.9%), Other offences against the person (-39.4%), Break and enter dwelling (-9.1%), Steal from dwelling (-22.9%), Breach bail conditions (- 15.6%), Transport regulatory offences (-30.8%) and Other offences (-86.4%). [See Table 2]
• Fifteen offences had a rejection rate above five per cent: Domestic violence related assault (11.1%), Non-domestic violence related assault (9.3%), Sexual assault (7.7%), Sexual touching, sexual act and other sexual offences (5.7%), Abduction and kidnappingi (17.7%), Robbery without a weapon (15.0%), Robbery with a weapon not a firearm (8.1%), Other offences against the person (5.1%), Break and enter dwelling (8.1%), Motor vehicle theftii (8.3%), Steal from dwelling (7.8%), Steal from person (20.2%), Stock theft (12.7%), Fraud (5.7%) and Breach Apprehended Violence Order (10.5%) [See Table 2].
• For the selected offences across NSW PACs/PDs, there were twenty-one uptrends and forty-nine downtrends in rejected incidents in the 24 months to June 2023, compared to twenty-seven uptrends and twenty-seven downtrends in the previous report to September 2022.
• The majority of uptrends were in Intimidation, stalking and harassment (three PACs/PDs), Fraud (four PACs/PDs) and Breach Apprehended Violence Order (eight PACs/PDs, up from five in the previous report). [See Table 3]
• Two PACs/PDs showed uptrends in both rejected incidents of Intimidation, stalking and harassment and rejected Breach Apprehended Violence Order incidents: Fairfield City (47.2% and 44.7% respectively) and Liverpool City (151.2% and 88.1%). [See Table 3]
• Murray River had downtrends in rejected incidents for six offences, including the largest downtrend of any PAC/PD for four offences (Non-domestic violence related assault, Break and enter dwelling, Malicious damage to property and Breach Apprehended Violence Order).
• Breach Apprehended Violence Order had a high and upward trending rejection rate in seven PACs/PDs. Campbelltown City, Fairfield City, Liverpool City and Wollongong had high and upward trending rejection rates for two offence types each. [See Table 4]
• The highest rejection rate across all PACs/PDs for selected offences was Steal from person in South Coast (52.2%). [See Table 4]
• Thirty-five PACs/PDs had high rejection rates (above 9%) for Breach Apprehended Violence Order with uptrends in seven PACs/PDs. Domestic violence related assault had high rates in 30 PDs, down from 42 in the previous report with downtrends in nine PACs/PDs. [See Table 4]