Monday, February 25, 2013
Victoria Police is keen to build trust with African-Australian communities.
RACIAL profiling. Over the past week, these two words have been used in conjunction with Victoria Police. It's something I don't want to see happen again.
I'm pleased we came to a resolution regarding proceedings in the Federal Court last week. Hopefully this will help us become a better organisation. [A civil case brought by six African-Australian men against Victoria Police was settled before trial. The men claimed police had engaged in racial profiling against them in Flemington and North Melbourne between 2005 and 2009.]
Racial profiling describes the targeting by police of members of an ethnic group based on race. It means an individual's race or ethnicity is used by police as the primary factor in deciding whether to stop and search someone, or ask for their name or to question them.
While I don't accept racial profiling exists in Victoria Police, there has been public criticism of police racial profiling or overly targeting members of the African-descent Australian community. Some believe they are being aggressively and unfairly targeted by police.
I want to change this perception. We have been working with Australian-African communities to build closer relationships so there is a greater level of trust between us.
Our key focus is always on crime. It is not on race, age, gender or stereotype. Our commitment is to keep the community safe from crime, ensuring everyone's safety and welfare.
I expect all of our employees to respect the human rights of all people. Our recruit and probationary constable training involves providing awareness and understanding of policing in a diverse community, including youth, multicultural, indigenous, gay, lesbian and transsexual, and human rights.
We also encourage the recruitment of members of the African-descent Australian community, and the use of New and Emerging Community Liaison Officers to bridge the gap between police and the community. This program is designed to facilitate better communication and a mutual understanding of the cultural differences faced by people from communities migrating to Victoria from the Horn of Africa (including Somalia, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Sudan), Burma, Afghanistan and Iraq, particularly when related to policing.
With this, we have a strong presence working with communities in areas of high African population and have made significant inroads in improving relationships and trust. These initiatives are happening across the state, where members are taking part in soccer games, festivals, movie nights and picnics with the community.
These activities give police and community groups an opportunity to form relationships, understand each other and build trust. Police members work hard to build these relationships, so we can improve the safety of our whole community by keeping it free from violence.
As part of the out-of-court settlement last week for incidents which occurred between 2005-'09, we committed to inviting the community to comment on two matters we'll be reviewing - field contacts and cross-cultural training. The community will be free to make submissions on any issue they believe relevant to the reviews.
This is an opportunity for the community to help shape their police force. Victoria is an ever-changing place and as a police force we need to reflect this in our everyday work.
A case such as this highlights the importance of continually engaging with and understanding the community we are employed to keep safe. We can always get better at what we do.
This is what we will do. And the whole community will be able to judge us on that.