New South Wales Police Commissioner Mick Fuller wants more flexible bail conditions for Aboriginal offenders.
Under his proposal, Aboriginal offenders will be able to register up to three bail addresses to combat the ongoing problem of bail breaches.
In fact, it’s already being trialled in Dubbo.
“The Dubbo Bail project is a Local Area Command initiative in the early trial stage which aims to reduce bail breaches by helping police and courts set more realistic and accountable bail conditions,” Commissioner Fuller said.
“When it doesn't compromise public safety, we need to be more adaptable to different cultures and regions throughout the state and have a more flexible approach to keeping people out of prison.”
Commissioner Fuller said he understands that Aboriginal people have ‘more complex lives’ than non-Indigenous people, and bail conditions should be adjusted accordingly.
“In 2015, 74 per cent of the 2122 breaches of bail by Aboriginal accused persons were for failure to report, not residing at the nominated address and not keeping to a set curfew,” Commissioner Fuller said.
“The project aims to address these breaches but providing better understanding to accused people of their bail conditions and how to keep them, increase the number of accused people seeking variations of their bail conditions instead breaching them and linking accused people to support services.
“At the end of the day preventing crime should always be our primary goal.”
