The Australian Federal Police Association (AFPA) says the community has been let down by the jail sentence for the man who killed disability advocate Sue Salthouse.
Ms Salthouse died in hospital after she was hit by a ute while driving her wheelchair-accessible motorbike in July 2020.
Mitchell Laidlaw, 35, pleaded guilty to culpable driving causing death in March, as his trial was due to begin.
Laidlaw was yesterday sentenced to two years and three months in jail, but the sentence will be suspended after three months.
Speaking to ABC Radio Canberra, AFPA president Alex Caruana said the sentence did not meet community expectations.
"The offender has failed to turn up to numerous corrections appointments, and again offended on bail but then the Chief Justice slaps him with three months in jail. How is that fair and how is that meeting the community expectations?" he asked.
He said it was unfair on victims that some perpetrators were not spending more time in prison.
"In three months' time, this person gets to go back to spend time with his family and his loved ones, yet the Salthouse family have lost their loved one," he said.
"And not only the family; the community has lost a stalwart for this community. Let's not forget that Ms Salthouse was ACT Senior Citizen of the year."
Mr Caruana added that the ACT had higher than average breaches of bail than in other states and territories.
"We're averaging in Canberra around 80 breaches of bail a month... So that's two a day," he said.
"In other states, they're sitting around about half of that, or a little bit less, depending on what state and territories. In some cases; much less. It's just not good enough."
He said he wanted ACT Attorney-General Shane Rattenbury to review the laws around sentencing and bail conditions.
"Bill Stefaniac, when he was the ACT attorney-general, he made tougher laws. He made it so that if someone was before the courts already, your right for bail wasn't taken away straight away, but there wasn't an immediate presumption for bail. So we need to see something like that come out again," he said.
Mr Caruana said he wanted a review to analyse the situation, but said he was happy to be proven wrong.
"If that's the case, I'll happily stand off my soap box and leave the minister alone," he said.
"I certainly feel that there's enough evidence out there to indicate that there is a very clear problem and the community expects more from these recidivist offenders and the community expects more from the justice system."
Attorney-General says bail laws are under review
ACT Attorney-General Shane Rattenbury said bail and sentencing laws were currently under review, but, in the meantime, he could not intervene in the decisions of the court.
"While the police union is well within its rights to criticise the judiciary, having an independent judiciary is a cornerstone principle of our system of Australian society, and it ensures decisions are made in an impartial and non-political way," Mr Rattenbury said.
"I am sure that people would be extremely critical if I started telling judges and magistrates what decisions to make in criminal matters.
"Nevertheless, as the ACT government does regularly, we are currently reviewing relevant bail and sentencing laws, and related data, to consider whether reforms can be made, particularly in relation to repeat offending and driving offences."
He also said a "heavy approach to incarceration" was not the answer.
"While incarceration is sometimes a necessary and legitimate sentence, community safety is not improved by a heavy-handed approach to incarceration," he said.
"The evidence shows that this can exacerbate social dysfunction and disadvantage, isolate a person from the community, and contribute to continued offending."
The vice-chair of the Australian Law Society's Criminal Law Committee Paul Edmonds told ABC Radio Canberra that he did not think another review into the sentencing laws was necessary.
"The position of the ACT Law Society is that there is no current pressing need for a review of the sentencing regime in the ACT," he said.
"In very simple terms ... to use an old adage; if the system ain't broke, don't fix it," he said.
"The view of the Law Society is that currently in the ACT, the sentencing regime strikes an appropriate balance between those two competing demands of deterrence, or strict punishment on the one hand, and rehabilitation of offenders on the other."
