The Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission (IBAC) has uncovered concerning patterns and deficiencies in Victoria Police’s handling of police complaints by Aboriginal people, particularly children and young people.
Releasing the Victoria Police handling of complaints made by Aboriginal people audit report, IBAC Commissioner, Robert Redlich said the Audit examined Victoria Police’s handling of a sample of 41 complaints made by Aboriginal people and its oversight of 13 serious incidents involving an Aboriginal person.
Commissioner Redlich said police use of force was the most frequent complaint by Aboriginal people, while a significant number of the complaints and serious incidents involved Aboriginal children and young people.
“[The Report] also found very few complaints were determined by Victoria Police to be substantiated,” Commissioner Redlich said.
“In addition, a large proportion of the complaint files contained indications of bias or a lack of impartiality,” he said.
“Concerns with the Victoria Police complaint handling systems and processes were also identified in the Report, including how Aboriginal status was recorded, a failure to keep the complainant updated on the process of the investigation, and conflicts of interest being poorly identified and managed.”
Commissioner Redlich said a substantial number of complaints and serious incidents involved children, with 41 per cent of the files examined involving Aboriginal children and young people aged 17 years or younger.
He said that despite Aboriginal people coming into contact with police at a much higher rate than non-Aboriginal people, they made very few complaints about police.
“IBAC recognises how challenging it can be to make a complaint about suspected corruption or police misconduct,” the Commissioner said.
“Ensuring such complaints and serious incidents are investigated thoroughly and fairly is one way to help build trust in Victoria Police.”
He said the Audit Report also found human rights were not sufficiently understood or analysed in police complaint or serious incident investigations.
Commissioner Redlich said the findings indicated systemic failures within Victoria Police’s complaints handling processes, and that “these failures are longstanding, with previous IBAC reports identifying similar issues in complaints handling.”
The IBAC Report made 10 recommendations for Victoria Police, including that it establish a dedicated process for handling complaints by Aboriginal people; address serious and ongoing issues for managing conflicts of interest; and address concerns around how police engaged with Aboriginal children and young people in the context of arrests, interviews and management in police custody.
IBAC’s 80-page Audit Report can be accessed at this PS News link.
