NSW Police have ramped up the number of officers tackling domestic and family violence, but an inability to monitor the workloads of officers means the system remains inefficient.
While the number of specialist police working on domestic violence has almost doubled in the past five years, there are no systems in place to identify workloads and allocate officers accordingly, a report tabled on Monday found.
Similarly there is a lack of data showing whether staff are distributed in areas of need, the audit into the effectiveness of NSW Police's ability to respond to domestic and family violence showed.
The rates of compliance checking for domestic and family violence procedures also varied between local area commands, despite more resources being dedicated to improving police compliances with these procedures, NSW Auditor-General Margaret Crawford said.
Some local area commands completed 100 per cent of their checks for domestic violence, while areas with greater work loads completed far less.
Ms Crawford said there is no system that provides oversight over these compliance checks.
Training is also an issue - as no monitoring of the skill levels of the broader work force had taken place, beyond probationary constables being trained before they entered the force.
"The NSW Police Force does not consistently assess workforce capabilities or gaps in workforce skills and knowledge about domestic violence policing," the audit report said.
NSW Police do not regularly seek feedback from victim-survivors who have interacted with officers, leading to a limited understanding of the quality of its services, Ms Crawford said.
The auditor-general made a number of recommendations including that NSW Police improve how they collect and gather data so they can better meet staffing demands.
It was also recommended the domestic and family violence strategic policy be restructured to match the workloads of police working in domestic violence as well as reviewing the procedures for police after DV and family violence incidents.
Improving police databases so that related and repeat events are linked, and a review of the process investigating allegations against current and former police personnel were also recommended.
Labor spokesperson for the prevention of domestic violence Jodie Harrison said NSW Police had a difficult job responding to domestic and family violence but this report made it clear more work was still needed.
"NSW Police needs to make significant improvements in data monitoring and reviewing; and training and victim-survivor support," Ms Harrison said.
"There must be a stronger focus on ensuring all officers receive proper training in how to identify and properly support victims of domestic and family violence.
Addressing the auditor-general's recommendations would improve the police's response and could prevent future crimes, as well as supporting victim-survivors.
The report comes after data published last month showed the rates of domestic violence and sexual assault continued to grow over a four year period in NSW despite a decline in all other crimes.
The instances of domestic-violence related assault grew 3.1 per cent from January 2017 to December 2021, according to NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research, and the rate of sexual assault grew 4.8 per cent in the same period.
