Our privacy statement

Updated 30 April 2026

This privacy statement explains how we collect, use and share personal information when carrying out our functions pursuant to:

• Section 12 of the Independent Police Conduct Authority Act 1988 (IPCA Act). This includes considering and investigating complaints we receive, or matters notified to us by Police
• Section 27 of the Crimes of Torture Act 1989 (COTA). This includes actions our OPCAT team undertakes as a National Prevention Mechanism in relation to places of detention under the control of Police (our OPCAT functions).

We collect and use personal information

We request, receive and use personal information that we need to consider your complaint and carry out our functions. 

The IPCA Act says that we can require a person or organisation to provide information.  It also requires us to protect that information and only disclose what we consider is necessary to carry out our duties and functions under the IPCA Act.

The COTA empowers us to request and access information about people in Police custody, custody staff and places of detention.  The COTA requires us to protect any information and only disclose it for the purpose of giving effect to that Act.

We take care to exercise our information-gathering powers appropriately and meet our secrecy obligations at all times.

We will collect some information directly from you

We collect information provided directly by you, or your authorised representative, when you make a complaint to us and we are dealing with that complaint.

We may also ask you for information when we are carrying out our OPCAT functions.

You do not have to provide personal information to us

You do not have to give us your personal information when you are making a complaint but, if you don’t, we may not be able to investigate your complaint.

If you have information that is relevant to an investigation or inquiry, and we use our statutory powers to request it, you will have to comply with that request.

We will give you a reasonable time to respond to any request for information.

The personal information we may collect from you 

The personal information we may collect from you directly includes:

• your name
• your contact details, including your address, email address or phone number
• information about your authorised representative (if you have one)
• the content of your complaint
• any documents or other information you provide to us as part of a complaint, investigation or inquiry
• correspondence or phone messages received from you about a complaint. (We don’t always record phone calls but sometimes we do. If we are recording a phone call with you, we will tell you before we start recording).
• if we don’t record a phone call, we may take notes or write a summary of the call.

We can collect information about you from other organisations

If another agency has referred a complaint to us (for example, Police or the Ombudsman), they will provide the information you gave them about your complaint.

In most cases, we will access information on the Police National Intelligence Application concerning the matter you have complained about. This is so that we can consider your complaint.

We may also request personal information about you from other people or agencies. We have the power to require a person or agency to provide us with information to carry out an investigation or inquiry.

We may also collect publicly available information about you – such as any media reports, court decisions or social media – where this is relevant to carrying out our functions.

Automatic collection of information via our website

Our website uses cookies to improve your online experience.  Details gathered include the duration of your visit, the pages you visited, what type of internet browser you used and other details. We use this information to help ensure the website is meeting user needs. You can change your cookie settings through your browser.

Our website does not gather any identifying details or other personal information about your visit except when you use the online complaint forms or email form on our contact page.

What we do with your personal information

The IPCA Act says that we must notify Police of any complaint we receive. 

We do this by sending them a copy of your complaint. This includes giving them the personal information you gave us such as your name, address, date of birth, etc.

If you do not want us to give your name to Police you need to tell us that when you make your complaint. We will try to ensure Police don’t know who you are if that is what you want, but it won’t always be possible to do that, and we may not be able to investigate your complaint if we can’t reveal your name to Police. We will contact you if this is the case to talk about how you would like us to proceed.

Apart from Police, we do not give information about you to other government agencies, organisations or anyone else unless one of the following applies:

• you have given authority; or
• it is required or authorised by the IPCA Act or by any other law, including when we consider it necessary to do so when investigating your complaint; or
• it will prevent or lessen a serious threat to public health or safety or to somebody's life or health; or

• the information is to be used in a way that will not identify you; or it is to be used for statistical or research purposes and will not be published in a way that will identify you; or

• we contact another oversight or complaints agency to determine whether to transfer a complaint or when the Authority needs to consult an agency in relation to a matter we are considering under the IPCA Act, including for example, the Privacy Commissioner or the Ombudsman.

We will use your personal information to:

• contact you about a complaint, investigation or inquiry
• decide whether to investigate a complaint
• investigate and resolve a complaint
• conduct an inquiry.