Future Directions-Reforming Sectors - The Challenges Ahead for Policing
Steve Kinmond
I
would firstly like to acknowledge the traditional owners of this land,
the Eora people.
Today
I've been asked to identify three key areas for reforms required by
the police service in order to combat racism. It should be noted that
I am speaking not as a representative of the police service, but from
the organisation which oversights the service.
Today
I'm only going to talk about racism within the police service,
and not about the greater role that police have to play in responding
to, for example, racially based crimes.
The
first thing to recognise is that racism within the police service is
not just about racist individuals serving as police officers, although
they are certainly part of the service, just as they are part of any
organisation.
The
real challenge is how to eliminate institutionalised racism and
to identify what the service needs to reform at a systemic level?
Because
the Ombudsman's office has done extensive work with Indigenous communities,
I want to make principally focus on our experience in that area. However,
these observations may be relevant to other minority groups as well.
There
is no doubt that racism against Indigenous people is one of the key
challenges for the police service. Historical, cultural and societal
factors all come into play…and all need to be taken into account,
particularly in areas where non-Indigenous police officers are responsible
for policing areas with significant Indigenous communities.
The
Ombudsman has a specialised Aboriginal Complaints Unit which handles
complaints about police from Indigenous people and is involved in building
bridges between Aboriginal communities and the officers who police those
communities. Much of our work focuses on rural communities.
Our
experience in dealing with complaints from Indigenous people is that
quite often, the question of whether or not the individual officer involved
was motivated by racism is very difficult to prove. Where Indigenous
communities are affected, we have found that the most effective way
of resolving the complaint is to focus on finding an outcome that allows
all parties concerned to continue living in the same community with
a constructive relationship.
In
seeking to identify three key areas in need of reform, I considered
education, which is vital to any long-term solution to racist misconduct
by police officers. But it is not enough.
So,
instead of focussing on education as one of the key reform issues, I've
decided to talk about firstly, recruitment and placement of officers,
secondly, the performance management of officers, and thirdly, police
and victims of crime from minority communities.
Recruitment
and placement issues
From
the complaints that we have received over the years, it appears that
what is called "poor job-person fit" very often leads to complaints
of racially based police misconduct. The situation is that the officer
assigned to a particular job does not have the appropriate skills for
the role.
In
commands where a deeper awareness and understanding of cultural issues
may be necessary to effectively police a particular community, the service
needs to look at strategies for employing and placing open-minded officers
who are willing to learn from and actively work with the community.
Officers
with these skills need to be encouraged and provided with a supportive
environment so their good intentions are not diminished by the attitudes
of officers who are more cynical and who are not prepared to change.
In
terms of getting the right police into the right location, recruitment
and placement practices need to be looked at.
The
solutions in part lie with providing significant incentives to get the
best officers working in key areas. In the area of recruitment, the
police service needs to identify those factors that inhibit people from
minority groups from joining the service. This process needs to involve
police and specific community representatives working to draw up distinct
strategies to attract a broader range of recruits into the service.
Because
all of this is much easier said than done, and it is so critical to
get it right, I believe the issue of recruitment and placement warrants
a great deal of attention by the police service.
Looking closely
at conduct-effective performance management
Some
complaints clearly indicate that there are officers whose personal problems
and/or poor people skills adversely impact on the communities they are
meant to be policing. This does not excuse their behaviour. But it illustrates
why broad-brushed cultural awareness training is not going to be enough
to address why certain officers behave in a hostile way to minority
groups.
Effective
performance management is crucial in cases where an officer's personal
problems and/or racist attitudes are affecting his or her ability to
behave professionally towards minority groups.
Supervisors
and local commanders bear primary responsibility for managing performance
issues. They cannot afford to bury their heads in the sand and not deal
with these issues. Simply calling the officer into their office and
giving them a stiff talking-to is not going to be sufficient to alter
the conduct.
The
Police Royal Commissioner, Justice Wood, identified the need for effective
management of staff as one of the major prerequisites for reform of
the NSW police service.
Complaints
that we receive appear to indicate that, like other forms of police
misconduct, officers behave in a racist manner towards people from minority
groups when they are allowed to get away with it by their supervisors.
Of
course, responsibility at the local level means that local commanders themselves must be properly trained to effectively deal with
these matters. And they must be accountable. They must be assessed on
how well they are dealing with officers displaying racist behaviour,
not only towards members of the public, but also towards their colleagues.
The
NSW Police Minister recently announced a drive to recruit officers from
more diverse backgrounds. Such initiatives will have very little impact
if the new recruits themselves are forced to deal with entrenched racist
attitudes and/or insensitive behaviour. Policing is hard enough without
feeling like you don't have the full respect and support of your colleagues.
This
is a key issue. It is pleasing to note that recently the police service
has recognised the need for cultural diversity trainers to work in local
commands on these kinds of issues.
Victims of
crime
The
third area of reform I want to touch on is the behaviour of police when
interacting with victims of crime.
As
I said at the beginning, the history of policing in this country has
resulted in a perception that, for some people, police are "the
enemy" and are more likely to view you as a potential criminal
than sympathise with you as a victim of crime.
The
HREOC Inquiry into Racist Violence in 1991 was told:
