Improving the AFP’s handling of complaints against its members
What did we review?
At least once every year, we must review the Australian Federal Police's (AFP) administration of complaints received by the AFP about the conduct of its members. Over the past 5 years, we have identified repeated issues regarding the adequacy of the AFP's investigation and management of these complaints. Issues where we have not seen adequate progress by the AFP include:
- inaccurate identification and categorisation of complaints
- poor communication with complainants and subjects of complaints
- deficient or poor-quality of investigations and reports.
The failure to properly address our repeat findings undermines confidence in the AFP's ability to thoroughly investigate complaints about its members, and to fix systemic issues in conduct and practices associated with high-risk behaviours of public concern, such as allegations of corrupt conduct and excessive use of force.
Outcome of our reviews
In the 2024-2025 financial year we finalised the annual report containing the findings from reviews we conducted in 2023-2024.1 We concluded that the findings of those reviews, combined with the failure to adequately address issues that have been the subject of previous recommendations by our Office, is indicative of a complaint handling system that does not meet legislative requirements.
We made 19 recommendations and 9 suggestions. The AFP accepted 12 of those recommendations and partially accepted the other 7. The AFP has now initiated an external review of their complaints management system. This is a positive step and indicates the AFP is willing to engage with our findings to create a robust and fair complaints management system.
1The report was finalised in June 2025 however it was tabled in Parliament on 10 July 2025