After community backlash, NSW Police search quotas have been
scrapped along with targets for the use of move on powers.
This follows significant increases in the quotas during the
COVID-19 pandemic, despite crime detection falling.
Both legal bodies and civil libertarians criticised the use of
numerical goals to monitor performance across police regions and
commands as enabling the vulnerable groups to be targeted.
Criticism of Police Search Quotas
Criticism of the use of police search quotas came from a number
of quarters, including the former Director of Public Prosecutions,
Nicholas Cowdery.
Now an adjunct professor of law at Sydney University, Mr Cowdery
labelled the strategy as a distortion of law enforcement. He
welcomed the end of targets for searches and move-on
directions.
