Heroes and villains

According to a paper published by the Australian Institute of Criminology in 2020, it would seem that shooting deaths in police custody are not common. For example, between 2006—07 and 2016—17, there were 82 deaths due to shooting, and 43 per cent of these deaths were self-inflicted. For 2019—20 there were 16 deaths in custody due to police shooting which suggests a marked increase, which perhaps prompted SBS to post an article with the headline of ‘Police shootings at record high in Australia’.