Flemington & Kensington Community Legal Centre

Latest News and Events

Stop and Search Receipting Policy  - 12 August 2011

A  detailed Stop and Search Receipting policy has been developed by Arnold Bloch Liebler (ABL)  and Flemington & Kensington Community Legal Centre (FKCLC) and is now available here (PDF). 

This new policy would require officers of Victoria Police to complete a form and issue a receipt every time they stop, or stop and search, someone. The proposed policy is a response to community perceptions that members of some racial or ethnic communities within Victoria are stopped and searched by police officers more often than members of the anglo-saxon community within Victoria.

The policy would create greater transparency as to the use of stop and search powers, by creating concrete data about every police stop and search in Victoria. The results of the policy would show either that the perceptions of racially-motivated policing are unfounded, or that those perceptions are accurate. If there is, in fact, a problem with any members of Victoria Police using stop and search powers in a discriminatory manner, the proposed policy would bring greater accountability to the use of those powers. It would also provide a firm factual basis for the introduction of policies to remedy such discrimination.

Greater transparency and accountability in the use of police powers is beneficial to society’s level of confidence in policing as well as the rule of law. Discussions have begun with Victoria Police

The Roundtable will set out the international context and rationale for the policy, and provide an opportunity to explain what the policy might mean for members of the Victorian public and discuss its implications.  We will also discuss steps in advocating for its introduction. 

The detailed Policy Proposal document is available here (PDF)

 

20 Years Still Waiting...   9 August 2011

The National Police Accountability Network of the National Association of Community Legal Centres has written to the Attorney-General and Minister of Indigenous Affairs to highlight the inadequacies of internal police investigations procedures across Australia. They call for mechanisms for the impartial investigation of police behaviour in Australia

Twenty years after the report of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody (RCIADIC) key recommendations stressing the need for an urgent review of the processes for dealing with complaints against police have not yet been implemented.

Tamar Hopkins, Convenor of the National Police Accountability Network said ‘Our current observations, which coincide with the observations of the Royal Commission 20 years ago, are that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples do not have confidence in the existing police complaints mechanisms, and tend not to lodge complaints even where they have been treated unfairly, unreasonably, unlawfully, or even maliciously, by police’.

‘Significant changes to current police accountability mechanisms are required to enable the confidence of people who come into contact with police. Changes are also necessary for Australia to comply with international human rights standards, which require effective investigation of any actions of the police that lead to violation of an individual’s human rights’ she continued.  

Both the United Nations Human Rights Committee and the Committee Overseeing the Implementation of the United Nations Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment have raised concerns about Australia processes for investigating complaints again the police and stressed the need for independent and impartial complaint and investigation processes.

A PDF copy fo the 6 page letter is available here.

 

Discipline Investigation Manual Released under FOI    - 10 July 2011

For the first time, following a request by Visho Zeqaj, Victoria Police has released its Discipline Investigation Manual to the public.  The Manual sets out how Victoria Police investigation into public complaints should proceed.  The release of the Manual is important step toward increasing the accountability and transparency of Victoria Police internal investigations. 

Media:  http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/bias-claims-as-complaints-rise-against-police-20110709-1h7zi.html

The Discipline Investigation Manual is available here.  The appendicies to the manual are available here.

The FOI request for the DIM followed concerns about adequacy of an internal police investigation of a complaint Mr Zeqaj made about police assaulting him and the failure of the Office of Police Integrity (OPI) to remedy the deficiencies in this investigation.

Now, the release of the Discipline Investigation Manual makes it quite clear the police investigation breached their own guidelines.

The release of the Discipline Investigation Manual tells us several things about the investigation of Mr Zeqaj’s complaint.  Firstly under the Investigator should have interviewed all the police involved at the scene where Mr Zeqaj was allegedly assaulted (page 15 of the DIM).

Secondly, the OPI review should have noted these failures in the investigation (page 46 of the Discipline Investigation Manual).  The OPI review failed to do this.

The release of the Manual shows that the OPI is failing to ensure that police investigations comply with their own manual.  These oversight failures mean that not only do the police investigate themselves, but there is no effective oversight of their investigations. 

The failures in internal investigation is bad for members of the public, but it is also bad for Victoria Police members who are genuinely trying to do the right thing.  Who can have faith in an investigation process where even basic failures like interviewing of all police members does not occur?

The release of the Manual also reveals some other problems.  For example – it is silent on whether police from the same police station can investigate their own.  At page 48 the manual states that in cases where investigators know the police they are investigating, they should refer the investigation to another member.  However, the fact that they do not now know the police they investigate does not mean that in the future they may be working directly with them.  This is particularly a possibility where officers work at the same station.

Furthermore, where officers may not be personal known to the investigator, the officer may still be under the same chain of command as the investigating officer.  Failures in police employed lower down in the chain of command could demonstrate a failure in training and supervision at the stations command or senior levels.  An investigator who is part of this chain of command cannot be impartial in these investigations.

Interestingly, and importantly, the Manual makes it clear at page 47 that investigators should be compliant with human rights in their investigations.  However the Manual fails to make it clear that to comply with human rights, investigations into human rights breaches must be:

a) independent

b) effective and capable of leading to criminal and/or disciplinary outcomes;

c) prompt;

d) open to public scrutiny;

d) involving and protective of the complainant.[1]

Leaving aside the issue of whether any Victoria Police member could actually be independent enough to meet these human rights requirements, the manual reveals that Victoria Police have yet to incorporate these key principles into their complaint investigations.

The DIM also sets out Victoria Police’s assault reduction strategy.  This strategy requires that whenever a civilian claims that they have been assaulted by police, a supervising officer be informed and that the Ethical Standards Department be notified so that ESD can commence and investigation immediately.

This Strategy has been in place since 1998. The FKCLC is aware of numerous cases where civilians make complaints and police stations and no such notification to ESD has occurred.

This system has been under the supervision of the Office of Police Integrity since 2004 and yet the strategy is not being carried out. 

The public release of the manual enables us to see that is quite clear that Victoria Police is not investigating in accordance with their manual and that furthermore, the OPI is not ensuring that investigations comply with the manual.

It is critical that the Government’s plans for an IBAC ensure it  incorporates the independent investigation of all public complaints against police.

 

 

 

 

 

 

FKCLC in the Media:

 

Media release, 15 October 2009 Victims of police abuse let down by Brumby Government

 

THE AGE 29, November 2010  Police face fresh claims of racism

 

Moonee Valley Leader, 15 December 2010 Flemington youth takes cops to court

 

The Australian, 6 April 2011 Young Africans case against police

 

ABC LATELINE, 3 May 2011 Victoria police implicated in racial profiling                      VIDEO

 

ABC RADIO, 4 May 2011 Vic Pol accused of racial profiling

 

ABC NEWS, 4 May 2011 Documents appear to show racial profiling

 

VIC POLICE NEWS, 4 May 2011 Vic Pol responds to abc report on racial profiling

 

3AW 693, 4 May 2011 Sudanese racially profiled

 

THE AGE, 13 May 2011 Racial profiling is part of the problem, not the solution

 

Media release, 5 July 2011 New Research points to Police Profiling on Race

 

ABC News, 5 July 2011 Centre claims Africans 'unfairly targeted' by cops

 

The Australian, 6 July 2011 African youth 'cop targets'

 

The Leader; Moonee Valley, 7 July 2011 Report suggests Police bias against Africans