Petition update · The Counted - Australia 2026

Petition updateOperation WATCH OVER METhe Counted - Australia 2026

ANZLEAC 4PRDAustralia

7 Jan 2026

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Respectfully acknowledging those who have passed, and the loved ones they have left behind, Australia New Zealand Lived Experience Advisory Council for Police-Related Deaths (ANZLEAC4PRD) submits to the Senate its ever evolving efforts to amplify the voices of those impacted at the highest level of risk within the nation’s justice systems.

The Counted - Australia 2026 data dashboard is a crucial feature of the Operation WATCH OVER ME movement. It is designed as a real time holistic sector response to complement the parliamentary Standing Orders 637, which requires the Attorney General to provide quarterly reporting on deaths in custody.

By reporting police suicides, police operational deaths, non fatal shootings and deaths in custody together, ANZLEAC4PRD seeks to explore patterns across these categories, including gaps in workplace health and safety notifications, investigations and prosecutions. This also includes examining barriers created by officer employment classifications along with industrial agreements or EBAs, embedding the principle that what gets measured gets managed.

A recent NSW Auditor-General report found that nearly 75 per cent of NSW Police compensation costs over a five-year period were linked to psychological injury claims. NSW Police spent more than $1.7 billion on those claims between mid-2019 and mid-2024. The report found that NSW Police had failed to adequately investigate whetherworkplace hazards, fatigue, role overload, burnout or psychosocial stressors contributed to the 171 critical incidents and deaths recorded between mid 2019 and mid 2024.

‘Hush money, or confidentiality clauses in settlement deeds. point towards a systemic misallocation of public resources, where funding is repeatedly directed to managing the consequences of harm rather than preventing it. These are not marginal costs. They represent a recurrent draw in the tens of millions on public funds at a level that would comfortably resource significant preventive infrastructure.

While Senate reporting remains important, it is retrospective in nature. The Counted provides a more immediate, accessible and independent picture of police related critical incidents, deaths in custody, police shootings and officer fatalities across Australia.

Its purpose is not only to count deaths after they occur, but to identify patterns, risk factors and opportunities for prevention before further harm occurs.

In this way, The Counted supports transparency, strengthens public confidence and reinforces a central proposition: the preservation of life is not a retrospective objective. It is an operational duty.

We invite you to help build awareness around safer police responses, mental health emergencies and the right to life.

Please consider forwarding the Operation WATCH OVER ME petition to your family, friends and contacts. Your support helps grow the conversation around police-led mental health responses, real time oversight, the OPCAT National Preventive Mechanism and Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody Recommendation 35.

Kind regards,
ANZLEAC4PRD

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5 May NSW

Driver dies near Griffith after police chase and head-on crash

5 May NSW

Walgett: Critical incident declared following death of a man during police operation - Moree Online News

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23 April NSW

NON FATAL SHOOTING - Charges laid after police shoot man who allegedly used car to pin officer in Sydney’s west

18 April WA

Second Aboriginal woman dies in WA's Bandyup prison... | National Indigenous Times

17 April WA