DATE DOWNLOADED: Thu Nov 11 09:59:45 2021

SOURCE: Content Downloaded from HeinOnline

Citations:

Bluebook 21st ed.

Tamar Hopkins, Policing in an Era of Human Rights, 32 ALTERNATIVE L.J. 224 (2007).

ALWD 6th ed.

Hopkins, T. ., Policing in an era of human rights, 32(4) Alternative L.J. 224 (2007).

APA 7th ed.

Hopkins, T. (2007). Policing in an era of human rights. Alternative Law Journal,
32(4), 224-228.

Chicago 17th ed.

Tamar Hopkins, "Policing in an Era of Human Rights," Alternative Law Journal 32, no.
4 (December 2007): 224-228

McGill Guide 9th ed.

Tamar Hopkins, "Policing in an Era of Human Rights" (2007) 32:4 Alternative LJ 224.

AGLC 4th ed.

Tamar Hopkins, 'Policing in an Era of Human Rights' (2007) 32(4) Alternative Law
Journal 224.

MLA 8th ed.

Hopkins, Tamar. "Policing in an Era of Human Rights." Alternative Law Journal, vol.
32, no. 4, December 2007, p. 224-228. HeinOnline.

OSCOLA 4th ed.

Tamar Hopkins, 'Policing in an Era of Human Rights' (2007) 32 Alternative LJ 224

-- Your use of this HeinOnline PDF indicates your acceptance of HeinOnline's Terms and
Conditions of the license agreement available at
https://heinonline.org/HOL/License
-- The search text of this PDF is generated from uncorrected OCR text.
-- To obtain permission to use this article beyond the scope of your license, please use:
Copyright Information
 ARTICLES

POLICING IN
AN ERA OF HUMAN RIGHTS
TAMAR HOPKINS

comments by police. Police managers would claim not

V Responsibilities Act 2006 ('the Charter') came

ictoria's Charterinof2007.
into operation TheRights
Human and has
Charter
implications for policing in Victoria. The purpose of
this article is to identify some of those implications and
current policing practices that will need to change in
order to comply with the Charter.
Over the past 18 months young people from Somalia,
Sudan and Afghanistan contacted the Flemington
& Kensington Community Legal Centre ('the Legal
Centre') and described their interactions with police.
Solicitors and volunteers at the centre spent many
hours listening to their experiences of police from
the Flemington area and beyond. Many of the stories
contain human rights breaches.
In the period 2006 to mid 2007 the Legal Centre
submitted over 18 complaints to the Office of Police
Integrity on behalf of its clients. The human rights
breaches fall into two categories. The first comprises
reports from young people about unlawful police
behaviour. These are reports of non-resisted assaults
such as punching a person in the stomach while they
are handcuffed, threats of lethal violence and racist
to justify this behaviour. However, whether they take
any effective measures to prevent the recurrence of
these behaviours is questioned, in light of the conduct
reported. The second category comprises policing
practices that some police managers might well regard
as acceptable but which nevertheless constitute human
rights breaches.
This article discusses the breaches in this second
category. I will use the Charter as a guide to expose
police practices that are either unlawful (where the
police action constitutes an offence) or have no legal
basis (where police have no right to take the action
and the action breaches a human right), The article
also raises some questions about community policing
strategies and their human rights implications.
What is the role of police in the context
of human rights?
Police are the primary means by which the state limits
our civil and political human rights. Most actions police
cake against a person will affect a person's freedom (see
summary in Table 1).

Table I
Police practices and freedoms they limit

Police action Freedom affected Section in the Charter

Arrest loss of liberty and loss of freedom of movement 21
Use of force in arrest/custody interferes with dignity, potentially the right to life, 10, 21, 22
security of person Art 9
Searches loss of dignity and security of the person, a 10, 12, 13
temporary loss of liberty and movement, privacy
Removal of property for loss of property rights 20 I
investigation purposes

Being questioned on the street
Being questioned more frequently
than others because of race,
homelessness, age, or the people
a person associates with
Being directed to leave a peaceful
picket line
Being photographed in detention
temporary loss of liberty and movement and an 12, 13, 21
invasion of privacy
interferes with the right to equality before the law, 8, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17,
freedom from discrimination, freedom of association 18, 19, 2.1
and movement, privacy
impinges on freedom of expression and peaceful 14,15, 16, 18
assembly and freedom of political communication
invades privacy, and dignity 17. 13, 22

224 - AltLJ Vol 32:4 December 2007


As policing can involve limiting human rights, the police role in
also protecting those rights will create some practical dilemmas.
In some of the cases listed in Table I, the interference
with our human rights may have sound policy,
legislative or legal justification. The restrictions
imposed may be necessary and appropriate in a
free and democratic society. On the other hand,
some limitations or methods of limitation may be
such serious infringements of human rights as to be
unjustified. Getting this balance right is partially the task
of parliament in creating legislation and the courts in
creating and interpreting the common law
The Charter itself contains a balance. For example
s 21(3) states: 'A person must not be deprived of his or
her liberty except on grounds, and in accordance with
procedures, established by law'. Getting the balance
right is also an essential task for police. It isthe police
who act to enforce the law and who choose which
methods to adopt in enforcing the law.
Because police work can interfere with human rights, it
is mandatory that any interference is justified. In order
to justifiably limit human rights, police actions and
methods must be:
* explicitly authorised by law;
* carefully scrutinised to ensure they continue to
be absolutely necessary and justified in free and
democratic society;
* thoroughly monitored, documented and supervised;
* the responsibility of organisational managers as well
as individuals;' and
* subject to review by a fully independent complaint
and investigation body and the courts.
Duty to promote and protect rights
From I January 2008, when Division 4 of Part 3 of the
Charter comes into operation, Victoria Police will be
obliged to act in a way that iscompatible with human
rights. The effect of this obligation will be to impose
a new duty on police. Currently, police duties are to
preserve the peace, prevent offences and discharge all
3 of racial profiling and unlawful discrimination.
legally imposed duties. The new duty will be to protect
and promote human rights.
Lord Brown in the 2006 UK case of Laporte gives an
example of the impact of human rights on police duties
in stating that police must take all possible steps to
advance rather than thwart a person's human rights.'
As policing can involve limiting human rights, the police
role in also protecting those rights will create some
practical dilemmas. By exposing these incompatibilities the
Charter necessitates change to some policing practices.
ARTOCLES
I would like to examine two practices currently viewed
as justified by some police and discuss their lawfulness
under existing law and the Charter rights they limit:
* the police use of search and seizure powers on young
people: and
* police questioning of young people on the streets.
Search powers and human rights REFERENCES
There is no common law power for police to search 1. To give full effect to s 38 of the Charter,
legislation that seversVictoria Police's
a person who is not under arrest.' Thus, the authority organisational liability for deliberate
for all pre-arrest searches must draw from legislation. abusesof power should be reviewed.
Victorian legislation permits police to perform a For an example of the current iack of
basic search of a person reasonably believed to be
organisational liabilityseeStateof Victoriav
Horvath (No 2) [2003] VSCA 24.
carrying weapons,' drugs of dependence,' and volatile 2. All of thesemechanismsare necessaryto
substances.' There are additional powers available ensurecompliance with s7 of the Charter.
under the state's anti-terrorism legislation. Act 2004 and
17 of the PublicAdministration
I02BA of the PbliceRegulations
Act 1958.
So what happens when police want to search a young 2.
Act 1958(Vic)Schedule
3. PoliceRegulation
person on the street and take their mobile phone to 4- Lord Brown at para129in R (onthe
investigate whether it is stolen?io Police have no legal applicationof Laporte)vChief Constable
of
authority to do this. If police have a reasonable belief Gloustershire
[2006] UKHL 55.
that the young person has committed a theft, they can S. Rv Davidson (1991)54 SASR580.
Searches must alsoprotect privacy. See,eg,
lawfully arrest the person and then legitimately search
the application of the CanadianCharter in
them. Searches and seizures without legislative authority, Rv Golden [2001] 33CR679, 2001.
warrant,'' or before arrest are arbitrary and unlawful.' Act 1990 (Vic) s 10-
6. Contrl of Weapons
The experience of being searched 7. Orugs,Poisons andControlled
Substances
Act 1981 (Vic) s 82,
One young Sudanese Australian I spoke to told me 8. Drugs. Poisons
and Controlled Substances
he was in a public mail with his girlfriend when police Act l981 (Vic)s 60E. F
searched him. The search was humiliating and as the 9. Terrorism
(Community
Protection)
Act
only black person in the mall he felt feel targeted" 2003s21P.
10 The LegalCentre received reports
Another young Somali Australian said that being that manyyoung people had their mobile
stopped and searched was so normal he had come to phones removed andlater returned by
see it as a routine part of his week. One of the reasons Remington police in 2006.
he attended the legal centre was for help to move away II. Coniscation
Act 1997 (Vic) s 79,79A.
from the housing estate he was living in to reduce the 12.There mayexist a limited power to
4 remove property under the common law's
constant and unjustified police attention.
breachof peacepreventative jurisdiction
These experiences are by no means isolated. Furthermore, 13.Reported LegalCentrein December 2006.
their consistent pattern indicates they are experiences 14.Reported LegalCentre February 2007.
15. Racialprofiling breachess8 of the
Charter.
Profiling isthe inverse of law enforcement. In law
enforcement, a crime isdiscovered and the police then look 16. Martnot 2003, 168 asquoted in Carol
Tator andFrancesHenry. RacialProfilingin
for a suspect who might possibly have committed it. Profiling
Canado (2006).
means that a suspect isdiscovered and the police then look
17.Breachings 8 of the Charter.
for a crime for the person to have possibly committed."
I8. Breaching
s 2 of the Charter.
Racial profiling has a very serious impact on people's 19.Breaching
s l6 of the Charter.
lives. It is humiliating; people are acutely aware that
the police attention on them is based on their skin
colour" It interferes with a person's freedom to walk
down the streete and spend time with their friends."
AltLj Vol 32:4 December 2007- 225
 ARTICLES
20. See,eg,Tator and Henry, above n 16.
151-83.
21 Victoria Police,SearchPowersPower
Point Presentation for the community.
2006
22. Studiesin the UShavealsoshown that
the 'voluntariness' of theconsent in these
encounters is highlyquestionable. Policearn
very aware of the authority they command
andhow to appear forceful. SeeJerome
H Skolnick andJames I Fife,AbovetheLnw
(1993) 101.
23. Gibsonv Ellis(1992) 59 SASR42Qas
quoted in Harry BlaggandMeredith Wilkie,
Young PeopleandPolicingin Australia:
the Relevance of the UN Convention on
the Rightsof the Child,' [1997] Australian
journal of HumanRights6.
24. Harry Blaggand Meredith Wilkie, Young
Peopleand PolicePowers.
The Australian
Youth Foundaton (1995) 10.
25. Reported in February 2006.
26. Reported in April 2007
27. See.eg Contralof Weapons Act 1990
(Vic), s 10,Drugs,Poisons
and Contrlled
Substances Act 1981(Vic) s 60H.
28. SeeGhassan Hage,White Notion,
Fantasies of White Supremacy in a
MulticulturalSociety(2000) for a detailed
analysisof these kinds of interactions.
29. Reports made to the author durng a
community legaleducation sessionby the
LegalCentre.
30. Stated bya senior police officer in 2006
to the author
31. Also see Harry BlaggandMeredith
Wilkie, 'Young PeopleandPolicingin
Australia: the Relevanceof the UN
Convention on the Rightsof the Child'
(1997)Australianjourml of Human Rights6.
32. Jennifer Kimet al, 'Americans on
Hold, Profiling, Citizenship. andthe "War
on Terror (Centre for Human Rights
andGlobal justice, NYU School of La.
2007)10.
226 - AItLj Vol 32:4 December 2007
It stops a person feeling safe or an equal member of
society. It increases a person's risk of psychological and
20
physical harm.
The effect is described well in words of a young person
attending the Legal Centre in May 2007:
I remember when I was younger my brother getting hit
by the police. He went to the Footscray hospital. Since
I'm a teenager they do the same ... to me. Every younger
generation that's growing up they are going to go after us.
They hate us ... they don't want to see the young black
fellas having a life. they are always going to put a criminal
record on you or take you to the station, or whatever to
try to get you locked up, to never get no good job.
Searches by consent
In some reports received by the Legal Centre police
direct young people to lift their shirts, drop their pants
and empty their pockets. Police explain they have the
right to search where the young person consents to the
search. In these cases the young person is'assisting the
police in the execution of their duties'.
None of the young people I spoke to thought they
provided police with their phones by consent or
consented to the search. Their reports reveal they
were arbitrarily and unlawfully searched and deprived
of their property.
The police direction to lift a shirt and empty pockets is
not experienced as a request by young people. In the
reports I have heard, it is experienced as a demand and
indeed a threat. Implicit in the request is the message,
'if you don't do as I ask, I will use force to search you
2 doing'.26 Police must explain the reason for conducting
and make life very difficult for you'.
The South Australian Supreme Court in the 1992
case of Gibson v Ellis21 held that a police search was
effectively a deprivation of liberty, a detention for
its duration. It is also a limitation on the freedom of
movement, peaceful assembly and privacy.
Wherever police justify a search on the grounds that
the person consented, it should be assumed that the
consent was coerced and that the search was therefore
an unjustifiable curtailment of human rights.
West Australian authors Harry Blagg and Meredith
Wilkie argue that for children to be able to exercise
their rights, special measures take account of their
comparative vulnerability, ignorance, dependence and
right to special protection and care. These rights are
introduced in Victoria through s 8(4) of the Charter.
Blagg and Wilkie note:
... in any contact with a police officer, the child depends
on the conduct of the officer for the enjoyment of their
rights and relies on the officer to fully respect those rights
and isat the mercy of any officer who chooses to infringe
or violate those rights. We therefore place the full burden
for respecting the child's rights and for protection of the
children from rights violations on the officer dealing with
the child.24
This burden is consistent with the position under
the Charter that it isthe police duty to protect and
promote -rights.
It is not just young people who are vulnerable to police
abusing their rights in search and seizure contexts. The
vast majority of Australians would not understand
that the police right to search is carefully constrained
by law. The Victoria Police Manual, in recognition of
this serious gap in legal knowledge and imbalance in
power between police and ordinary citizens, requires
police to obtain written consent of the person before a
consensual search is conducted.
Not one of the young people who told me about
being searched was asked to sign a consent form. I
asked a police officer in June 2007 about these forms.
Apparently the forms exist at the local police station,
but he agreed that 'no one uses them'.
Given the power imbalance, even the signing of a
consent form is not sufficient to ensure that a person
has genuinely and freely given their consent. Young
people may feel they have no option but to sign.
Proper purpose
It was the experience of young people reporting to the
Legal Centre that police conducted searches for non-
legitimate purposes. They felt that searches were being
carried out for the purpose of getting them to leave the
basketball court or the place they were sitting in. The
Legal Centre was given reports of police saying 'get
back to Africa' while searching young people.
It was reported to the Legal Centre by a Somalian
woman who asked police for the reason they were
searching her sister, that police responded by saying,
'we brought you to this country, now look what you are
a search. 27 The response this woman received provides
an indication that this search was an expression of a
racist or nationalist desire to assert control.a
Police questioning in public places
Young people in the Flemington region reported to
our Legal Centre in early 2006 that police stopped
them in public places and questioned them up to five
times a day, asking for their name, address and what
they were doing. A similar experience of intensive
policing was reported by youth at a 2006 National
Sudanese Youth Conference.
Police have said that it is part of their duty to know
what people in their community are up to and that
questioning specific groups is routine.3
From our Legal Centres experience, and police
admission, young people and people from ethnic
minorities are targeted by these practices." A recent
United States report notes that: 'In the post September
II, 2001 environment, one's immigration status is
increasingly a trigger for law enforcement scrutiny'."
These practices are discriminatory and breach s 8 of
the Charter:
(2)Every person has the right to enjoy his or her human
rights without discrimination.
(3)Every person isequal before the law and isentitled
to the equal protection of the law without discrimination
and has the right to equal and effective protection against
discrimination.
 ARTCLES

Are police capable of trusting, not suspecting, the community

in light of their training in paramilitary techniques and current
'war on crime' and 'war on terror' campaigns?

The policy of police to question target groups based on
their skin colour, age, or disability must cease.
On II February 2007 then Police Association head,
Paul Mullet, was reported in The Age to suggest that
Sudanese, 'roaming' in 'gangs' required a special police
task force."
Assistant Commissioner Paul Evan was quoted in The
Age on II April 2007 as saying that the Sudanese are,
'underrepresented in the crime statistics', and are very
community-minded people and that Australia is lucky
to have them. It is impossible to justify the practice of
racial profiling based on these statistics.
There was no indication in the article of the methods
Paul Mullet's taskforce might use. If the methods
involve more policing of these young people, the
taskforce will directly discriminate against Sudanese
Australians and breach of s 8 of the Charter.
Young people use public spaces to meet, play, and
entirely undermined by the authoritarian and repressive
police culture promulgated by the Police Association.
Aside from the problem of whether police are capable
of adopting community policing concepts, the question
remains whether community policing methods are
about trust or are a disguised form of discriminatory
policing. Stopping young people on the street and
asking for their names, addresses and where they are
going may appear to be good community policing. Yet,
as we have seen, it targets groups in society based on
characteristics such as race, youth and association.
A refusal by a young person to provide a name and
address in situations where the young person is not
required to give it often leads to an escalation of
conflict. Some police view a young person's refusal
to assist as a sign of a 'bad' attitude, insulting and an
affront to their authority. The Legal Centre has had
reports that young people have been pushed or even
hit with an object on occasions where they had refused
33.Gary Tippet, 'Some Kindof Beat-Up,
TheSunday Age(Melbourne). II February
2007, 18.
34. Policereport the 'problem isyoung
refugees failing to 'assimilate into Australia
rather than the abuseof police powers.
Charter rights to freedom of culture,
expression andequality are infringed by
assimilation,
journal,
35. Victoria PoliceAssociation
September 2006. This article is revealing it
creating the impression that the 'problem
is solved byelders in the community telling
young people to go home. This is not a
solution compatible with human rights.

engage in sporting activities. Young people without to comply with a request to provide information about 36.JudeMcCulloch, BlueArmy(2001) 3.

backyards, such as those who live in high rise estates,
are especially likely to congregate in public spaces.
Congregating makes young people particularly
susceptible to police interrogation. The Charter
recognises the lawful right of people to congregate,
associate and their right to privacy. Police practices that
interfere with these rights are unacceptable.
Community policing
Community policing strategies are supported as a
method of reducing 'difficulties' between police and
newly arrived communities. 35 Gaining an understanding,
respect and empathy for the community iscrucial to
deconstruct the isolated, siege mentality that police
work traditionally generates.
It is worth looking closely at whether community
policing strategies are being implemented in a way that
iscompatible with human rights. Are police capable of
trusting, not suspecting, the community in light of their
training in paramilitary techniques and current 'war on
crime' and 'war on terror' campaigns?"
37
As observed by Stead and Reside, community policing
is the approach adopted by those at the top of the
police command. There is minimal if any support from
police on the street. The authors note that this lack of
shared vision goes to the heart of the current dispute
between the Chief Commissioner of Police and the
Police Association and that community policing is
themselves or a friend. 37. Victoria SteadandShaneReside,
'Protest Politics andPolicing (2007) 88
Police have defended their reactions by saying, 'our ArenaMagazine April-May. 15.
3
members are not paid to be insulted on the streets'. 38. Discussions with two senior police
In Coleman v Power, High Court justices Gummow and officers andthe author in 2006.
Hayne state that, '[b~y their training and temperament, 39. In Coeman v Piwer (2004] HCA 39 the
police officers must be expected to resist the sting of High Court found that a charge of 'Use
insulting words' againsta police officer
insults directed to them'.3 Police officers are trained wasunconstitutional as it operated to
professionals in a position of power. unjustifiably burden constitutional freedom
of political expression.
Young people experience this kind of questioning as
40. Moonee Valley City Council (Youth
harassment and it leads them to feeling unsafe in their Services) Report. December 2006.
communities. Indeed, young people in Flemington and
surrounding areas reported fear of police harassment
as a major concern last year."
If police hold meetings with the community with the
underlying purpose of gathering intelligence, asserting
authority or creating a media or public relations stunt,
the meeting will not build trust. If however, the purpose
is for police to listen and learn, then reduced prejudice
could be an outcome.
For example, in early 2007, police and other individuals
in Flemington held a clean-up day. Police reported this
experience a successful 'engagement with the community'.
It has been reported that a police officer commented
afterwards that it was the first time he had spoken to an
African youth in circumstances where he was not treating
him as suspect and that it opened his eyes.
On the other hand, a young person who attended the
same function reported afterwards being interrogated
AltL) Vol 32:4 December 2007 - 227
ARTICLES.
41. Concerns around consent andcoercion
needto be examined closely in these
siuations. Perhapsyoung people could be
paid to provide this training.
42 For example, one person wasarrested
from his house anddetained in the police
station twice in early 2007 without charges
being laid.Arbitrary detention and arrest is
a breach of s2I of the Charter
43. Interferes with rights in ss 13 and8 of
the Charter.
44. Interferes with rights in ss 12 and 16of
the Charter.
45. Statement made bya police officer
in 2007 to the author. Detaining for
punishment is a breach of s25 which
requires that an accusedperson be
presumed innocent. The Charter provides
for a right to fair hearing (s24). It is only
the courts which can punisha person.
Punishment bypolice alsobreaches s 26 of
the Charter bysubjecting a person to two
setsof punishment.
46. Sections 21, 24, 25, 26 of the Charter.
47. For example, where they have arrested
andquestioned a person. then reJeased
them without charge,eg in February 2007,
two young people reported they were
assaultedduring arrest At the time of
writing, no chargeshave been laid against
the young people.
48. 'Young Refugeesin Australia: it's a
Long Roadto Settlement' (2007) XXX(I)
Migrotion Action5.
228 - AItLJ Vol 32:4 December 2007
with questions like. 'why haven't you got a job?' and
'what's going on with your family?'
In another example, police took a group of young
people on an overseas trip in 2007, to build trust. A
few months later, one of the young people experienced
a racist attack from a woman brandishing a needle and
saying 'I'm going to inject you with AIDS, you black
cunt' (or words to that effect). The young person was
too distrustful of police to report this experience,
despite the trip. It isworth noting that police
themselves have been reported to have used similar
racist abuse to young African Australians. Reporting a
racist crime to an organisation whose members have
perpetrated the same things is intolerable.
These examples indicate that such encounters can be
useful in breaking down police prejudice, and that young
people themselves can provide cross-cultural training to
police."' It is,however, the case that these encounters
may have negligible or negative outcomes for young
people. They may invade privacy or be further *
opportunity for police to gather prejudicial information
for their files. Unless the police act to protect rather
than abuse human rights, and the power imbalance
between police and community isaddressed, police
cannot assume that community engagement is positive.
Further problems in community policing are created
when police take over the lives of the young people
they 'engage with'. In Flemington, police have labelled
many of the young people who live in the high rise
estates with comments like: 'he's making progress', 'he's
not engaging', 'he's high risk', 'he's got potential', 'he's
disengaging', 'he's the gang leader'." The individuals
who are labelled are the prime suspects if a crime is
reported. The 'non-engager' or 'gang leader' is raided,
sometimes assaulted, threatened, sworn at, taken to the
police station and released often without charge.
The profiled young people experience life as a heavily
patrolled detention centre: their every move isclosely
watched and monitored. If the police do charge
them, the monitoring can be stepped up through bail
reporting requirements and conditions that give police
active control over the young person's movements, and
the people they can associate with."
Community policing can turn the police force into a
punitive and controlling welfare agency. When young
people are 'good', police will take them to sports
events, give them footballs, take them on camps, ropes
and high-challenge courses. The carrots, however, are
rapidly replaced with handcuffs and overnight detention
if the young person fails police expectation. 'He's got
to learn somehow, a night in detention might make him
see differently."
Unlike other organisations that work with young
people, police have access to what appears to be
lawfully sanctioned punishment if a person is suspected
of stepping out of line. Police who use their powers
to discipline, punish and control young people breach
fundamental principles such as the presumption of
innocence and the separation of powers as well as
46
human rights. In these situations, police may see there
is no need (or in fact basis on which) to charge a young
person when they have already been able to hand out
47
a punishment. When police act as investigator, judge
and executioner, justice is as they see fit. Charging
increases the risk of court scrutiny and exposure of any
lawless police behaviour.
This kind of policing renders a community powerless.
It exists outside the scrutiny of the courts and erodes
people's lives, safety, freedom and dignity. Rights to
privacy, freedom of association, of movement, peaceful
assembly and protection of the family do not exist in
such a closely monitored setting.
Victoria houses many newly arrived Australians in
the closely monitored and yet judicially unscrutinised
environment of the housing estates in inner Melbourne.
While refugee Australians are in need of more
community services," and this need requires urgent
government attention, police cannot fulfill this role.
Police are law enforcement agencies. When community
policing strategies become refugee over-policing
strategies, our migrant communities start to resemble
occupied territories and wire-less detention centres.
While it is essential that police act to reduce prejudice
and racism within police culture and that meetings with
youth, refugee and migrant communities can have a role
in this, over-policing, profiling and monitoring have no
place in this process. The unequal profiling of people
based on their age, nationality or ethnic origin is a
breach of the Victorian Charter. Moreover, the impact
of this kind of 'policing' unjustifiably limits many other
rights contained in the Charter such as freedom of
association, movement, assembly and privacy as well as
fundamental concepts of the presumption of innocence.
Victoria Police must now work human rights into their
practice. Many current police practices need to change.
We watch the developments with interest.
TAMAR HOPKINS isPrincipal Solicitor at the
Flemington & Kensington Community Legal Centre.
@ 2007 Tamar Hopkins
email: TamarHopkins@clc.net.au
The Flemington & Kensington Community Legal Centre
with Victoria Legal Aid write 'Police Powers: Your
Rights in Victoria' and regularly provide community
legal education on police powers. The legal centre was
awarded the 2006 Tim McCoy Award for its work in
bringing to public attention young people's experience
of policing in the Flemington region.
Thank you to the young people and their families in the
region for their courage and passion for justice. Thanks
also to Charandev Singh, Genevieve Nihill, Simone
Perkin, Tiffany Overall, Khadra Ahmed, Ahmed Dini
and Andrew and Anthony Hopkins and many others for
their direct and indirect assistance, ideas and inspiration.