Complain to JACS
How to complain to the ACT Justice and Community Safety Directorate.
The Justice and Community Safety Directorate Service Charter outlines what you can expect from us.
If you're unsatisfied with our service provision, conduct or believe we have not complied with the law, you can complain to us or give us feedback. We welcome your complaint or feedback. It helps us to fix problems and improve services.
If it's not a problem we can address, we’ll try connect you to someone who can help.
Before making a complaint
If you can, and are comfortable doing so, talk to the person or area where your issue or complaint started. Most complaints can be resolved with a conversation.
Make a complaint
If you can’t get the issue resolved by talking to the person or area, you can complain to us.
You can submit a complaint online through Access Canberra.
Alternatively, you can complain by submitting a form.
Download and complete a complaint or concern form in the format you need:
Submit your form by:
- email to JACSComplaints@act.gov.au
- post to Complaints, Governance and Business Improvement, Justice and Community Safety Directorate, PO Box 158, Canberra ACT 2601
What to include in your complaint
Give us as much information about the problem as possible.
You should include:
- a description of the issue, incident or decision
- dates of events and contact with the Directorate
- details of telephone conversations or meetings
- reference numbers if you have any
- evidence such as records or photographs
- what you’ve tried to fix the problem
- what you would like to happen.
Anonymous complaints
You can choose to remain anonymous when you submit a complaint. Feedback provided anonymously can give us useful information to improve our services.
If you choose to remain anonymous, this may limit our ability to investigate, resolve or respond to your concern.
Complaints we won’t investigate
We cannot investigate a complaint if:
- you don’t provide us enough information to investigate it
- we are not responsible for the legislation governing the complaint
- another body should investigate your complaint
- there is legislation that provides a specific handling mechanism
- the matter is currently before a court, tribunal, board or committee
- there is no way of resolving it.
After you make your complaint
When you make your complaint, we’ll follow our Complaints Management Policy [PDF 468 KB] to review, respond to and resolve your complaint.
If we decide not to investigate your complaint, we will tell you why we will not investigate.
If we think someone else can help you with your complaint, we will tell you.
Some business areas within the Justice and Community Safety portfolio have their own complaints management policies that are specific to their functions. These are listed in the Complaints Management Policy.
If you’re unsatisfied with our response
In some cases:
- you may be dissatisfied with our decision to discontinue the investigation of your complaint
- you may be dissatisfied with the resolution of your complaint
- we may think someone else may be better able to help you with your complaint.
In our response, we will always provide you details of the most suitable option to seek further review of your complaint.