A compliance check is police turning up at the door, unannounced, to see whether an AVO is being obeyed. They were once reserved for high risk matters. They are now run at scale, including as targeted operations, and people subject to ordinary orders with no criminal charges attached are being doorknocked.
The checks are done on both sides of an order. Police call on protected persons to ask whether they are safe and whether anything has happened, and they call on defendants to see who is in the house and what is going on. Knowing what they can and cannot do before they arrive is worth a great deal at the door.
At the door
What a compliance check involves
- They knock and identify themselves. Unless in uniform, an officer exercising a power must show evidence they are police, and must give their name, their place of duty and the reason for what they are doing.
- They ask questions. How you are, who lives here, whether there has been any contact, whether anything has happened since the order was made.
- They ask to come in. Usually to confirm that the person named in the order is not there.
- They may ask to see a phone. To check for contact between the parties where the order prohibits it.
- They may ask about firearms. Where police enter a home in a domestic violence context they are required to ask, and if told there are firearms present they must take reasonable steps to search for and seize them.
A check is not neutral fact gathering. Anything said at the door can end up in a court attendance notice, and questions frequently range beyond the order itself.
The important part
Can you refuse to let them in
Sometimes. Not always, and the exceptions are precisely the situation a compliance check arises in, so the confident answer you will read elsewhere is wrong.
Where police can enter without your consent
Where an officer believes on reasonable grounds that a domestic violence offence is being committed, may have been recently committed, is imminent or is likely, they can enter a home on the invitation of someone who apparently lives there. If that invitation comes from a person the officer believes to be the victim of a domestic violence offence, they can enter even if another occupier expressly refuses. Your refusal does not override theirs.
Police can also enter without consent in an emergency, where they believe on reasonable grounds that someone has suffered significant physical injury or is in imminent danger of it and immediate entry is necessary. They can enter to arrest someone, or to execute a warrant, where they believe that person is inside. And where entry is refused in a domestic violence matter, there is a mechanism for obtaining a warrant, and police can remain at the premises in the meantime, direct people to leave or remove them, and prevent evidence being removed.
Outside those situations, police have the same right as anyone else to walk up and knock, and no more. You do not have to invite them in and you do not have to consent to a search. But refusing is not a magic word, and resisting or obstructing an officer who is acting lawfully is itself a criminal offence.
Your position
What you have to do, and what you do not
Identifying yourself
Police can require your name and address where they suspect you are the defendant under an AVO. Giving a false name or address is an offence. This is not the point to be difficult.
Answering questions
Beyond identifying yourself, you are generally not obliged to answer questions or explain yourself, and an explanation offered at the door to be helpful is the most common way a compliance check becomes a charge. Being polite and saying little are not in tension.
Your phone
You are not obliged to hand over a phone or unlock it simply because you have been asked. Handing it over is consent, and consent is difficult to withdraw once the messages have been read. Different rules apply where there is a warrant or where you are under arrest.
Entry
You can decline to invite police in, while understanding it may not end the matter for the reasons above. If they enter anyway, say clearly that you do not consent and then do not interfere. The place to argue about the lawfulness of an entry is a courtroom, not a doorway.
You can ask for legal advice at any point, and you should, particularly if the conversation moves from the order to an incident.
Practical
What to do when they arrive
- Be courteous. Nothing good comes of the alternative, and demeanour at the door regularly ends up in a statement.
- Get the details. Names, station, the time, and how long they were there. Write it down afterwards while it is fresh.
- Do not guess at your own conditions. If you are asked whether you have had contact, and you are not certain what your order permits, say you would like to check the order and get advice.
- Do not offer explanations. Context that seems exculpatory to you often reads as an admission in a statement.
- If someone is present who should not be, do not stage anything. Attempts to conceal a breach turn a difficult conversation into a much worse one.
- Call us afterwards. Especially if you were asked to attend a station, if anything was seized, or if you were told a report would be made.
If you are the protected person
Checks are done on you too
Police will call to ask whether you are safe and whether the order has been complied with. You are not obliged to invite them in either, although in practice most protected persons do, and an invitation from you carries weight the defendant’s refusal cannot override.
Two things are worth knowing. If you have resumed contact with the defendant, that does not put you in breach, because the order binds them and not you, but it can put them in breach and it will be recorded. And if the order no longer reflects what you want, the answer is an application to vary or revoke it, not an informal arrangement between the two of you. See varying or revoking an AVO.
If they say you have breached
What happens next
If police form the view that a condition has been contravened, you can expect a court attendance notice, and in some circumstances arrest. Knowingly contravening an order carries a fine and up to two years imprisonment, and where the act constituting the offence was an act of violence the court must impose a sentence of imprisonment unless it orders otherwise.
- A conviction goes on your record. The order itself does not, but a breach conviction does, with the employment and travel consequences that follow.
- The protected person cannot authorise a breach. Their invitation, their message, their turning up at your door: none of it is a defence.
- Unworkable conditions are usually the cause. If a condition cannot be complied with given where you live or work or collect your children, it needs to be varied, not managed informally.
See contravening an AVO. If the order is still being negotiated or has not yet been made final, see defending an AVO.
After a knock at the door
Talk to us before you talk to them again
Our lawyers include former prosecutors and former police, so we know what a compliance check is for and how the notes made at your door are used afterwards. If you have been doorknocked, asked to attend a station, or told you may be charged, call us before you say anything further.
Alicia Catron 0407 171 626 or Michelle Simmons 0407 534 594. We act in AVO matters in Local Courts across New South Wales and are contactable outside business hours.