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Northern Territory

Northern Territory Police Force

97.6 complaints per 100,000 people in 2024-25.

97.6
complaints per 100,000 people, 2024-25
Report on Government Services 2026, table 6A.11
25
deaths in police custody, 2007-08 to 2024-25
Report on Government Services 2026, table 6A.5
18
of those recorded as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander
Counts as published; see the note on rates below
2015: 139 139 20152016: 138 138 20162017: 143 143 20172018: 163 163 20182019: 113 113 20192020: 106 106 20202021: 102 102 20212022: 78 78 20222023: 80 80 20232024: 98 98 2024
Complaints about Northern Territory Police Force per 100,000 people, by year. Report on Government Services 2026, table 6A.11.

Complaints, year by year

Two bases are published. Per 100,000 people measures complaints against the population served. Per 100 sworn staff measures them against the size of the force, which is the fairer comparison if you are asking how often an individual officer is complained about.

YearComplaints per 100,000 people Complaints per 100 sworn staff
2015-16 139.3 28.6
2016-17 137.8 29.5
2017-18 142.6 28.5
2018-19 162.7 32.9
2019-20 112.5 22.7
2020-21 105.7 20.7
2021-22 101.5 20.3
2022-23 77.6 15.2
2023-24 80.0 15.4
2024-25 97.6 18.2

Deaths in police custody

YearDeaths in police custody Of which Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander
2007-08 5 2
2008-09 5 4
2009-10 4 2
2010-11 0 0
2011-12 2 2
2012-13 0 0
2013-14 1 1
2014-15 2 2
2015-16 1 1
2016-17 2 1
2017-18 0 0
2018-19 0 0
2019-20 2 2
2020-21 0 0
2021-22 0 0
2022-23 0 0
2023-24 0 0
2024-25 1 1
These are counts as published, not rates. A rate would need a population denominator by Indigenous status, which we do not yet hold in a form we can recompute and check.

How to complain about Northern Territory Police Force

A complaint normally starts with Northern Territory Police Force itself, which has its own professional standards command. More serious allegations, and allegations of corruption, go to the state's independent body.

NT Ombudsman is the independent oversight body for Northern Territory: www.ombudsman.nt.gov.au. Its powers differ from those of its counterparts in other states, so do not assume guidance written for another jurisdiction applies here.

A civil claim is a separate process from a complaint, brought in the courts of Northern Territory under that jurisdiction's limitation rules. Those deadlines are strict and run whether or not a complaint is still being considered.

This is general information about how oversight is structured in Northern Territory, not advice about any individual case.

Northern Territory police in the news

The five most recent reports mentioning this force, collected automatically. Headlines and links belong to the publishers named. We do not edit, summarise or endorse them, and inclusion here does not imply any finding against anyone.

Sources. Steering Committee for the Review of Government Service Provision, Report on Government Services 2026, Part C Section 6 (Police Services). Licensed CC BY 4.0. Complaints table 6A.11, deaths in police custody table 6A.5. The per-100,000 and per-100-staff rates are the publisher's calculation. A complaints figure reflects what Northern Territory records as a complaint, which differs between jurisdictions, so it is not directly comparable with another state without that caveat.

Data last refreshed , covering 2015-16 to 2024-25. Every figure on this page is recomputed from the source datasets, not edited by hand. Found something wrong? Tell us.