Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Data Archive

National Police Custody Survey, August 1992

This study is the second in a series of police custody surveys recommended by the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody and provides information on those being taken into custody and held in police cells or related secure police detention facilities.

Police filling out surveys were asked to provide the following details on detainees - age, sex, time of lodgement and release from cell, reason for detainment and release and whether the detainee is an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, researchers and other users should be aware that material in this dataset may contain material that is considered offensive. The data have been retained because it represents an evidential record of language, beliefs or other cultural situations at a point in time.

In line with normal ADA policy, variables (such as postcode) which could possibly be used to identify individuals have been removed or recoded from the public data file. Much of the original data, however, have been made publicy available by other parties, and if researchers would like to access the original data files, they can contact ADA and make a case for gaining access to these data.
Dataset ID: 
au.edu.anu.ada.ddi.00967
Principal Investigator: