NCJ Number
185598
Date Published
2000
Length
16 pages
Annotation
A survey by the Queensland, Australia, Criminal Justice Commission found no increase between 1995 and 1999 in the proportion of respondents reporting dissatisfaction with police behavior; in both years, very few respondents were aware of serious misconduct by the police.
Abstract
The telephone survey of 1,502 Queensland residents was primarily concerned with measuring attitudes toward the Queensland Police Service and public confidence in, knowledge of, and satisfaction with the process for making complaints against the police. Findings revealed respondents in the 18- to 24-year-old age bracket were considerably more likely than older respondents to express negative views of police in 1999 and to report dissatisfaction with their treatment by police. Survey data showed a drop in public confidence in the complaints process between 1995 and 1999, although public confidence remained fairly high in absolute terms. Young people were substantially less likely than the rest of the sample to express confidence in the complaints process. Respondents who reported being dissatisfied with police behavior were less likely to make an official complaint in 1999 than in 1995. Further, respondents who actually made an official complaint in 1999 were somewhat more likely than those in 1995 to express dissatisfaction with how the complaint was handled. When people expressed dissatisfaction with the police, it was primarily because they perceived a police officer had been unfriendly, rude, or arrogant or had acted unreasonably or unfairly. 5 references, 16 tables, and 7 figures