Oversight
Oversight describes the activity and process of ensuring compliance with official and legal requirements.
Oversight is a vital function of OPI. It enables us to check that Victoria Police are honouring their commitment to the community to provide professional and ethical policing services.
At OPI, we can monitor a Victoria Police complaint investigation as it unfolds, or after it has been finalised. In this way, OPI can ensure that Victoria Police are acting with professionalism and integrity when resolving a complaint or conducting a complaint investigation. Oversight of this nature also helps us identify any emerging trends in police behaviour.
Other activities we undertake in an oversight capacity include Audits and Reviews.
- An audit can take the form of a physical visit to a police station to check, for example, conditions in a holding cell. Audits such as these can assist us to ensure that police members have regard to the human rights set out in the Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities.
- A review will look thoroughly at a particular aspect of policing work, including the systems, processes and procedures currently in place. Reviews can make informed recommendations for improvements based on the review team’s research. Reviews are the outcome of an ongoing strategy to identify aspects of policing practice and procedure that affect the professionalism and effectiveness of Victoria Police.