Victoria's corruption watchdog says it has identified "concerning patterns" in how the state's police force investigates and handles complaints made against officers by Aboriginal people.
The Independent broad-based anti-corruption commission (IBAC) audited 41 complaints made by Aboriginal people and reviewed 13 serious incidents involving an Aboriginal person.
In Victoria, complaints made against an officer are mostly investigated by Victoria Police — a system which IBAC said had "been the subject of considerable discussion, criticism and recommendations for reform".
"Many in the community are concerned by the fact that most complaints about police are investigated by Victoria Police rather than by an independent body," the report reads.
Conflicts of interest and bias prevalent in complaint investigations
In the Commission's report released today, it found Victoria Police failed to properly identify and manage conflicts of interest in more than 40 per cent of the complaints it reviewed.
This included officers not declaring a conflict, police being investigated by officers working in the same station or service area and cases where conflicts were declared but no further action was taken.
The IBAC report also highlighted significant concerns about bias and a lack of impartiality on the part of police officers involved in incidents with Aboriginal people and on the part of investigators looking into complaints made by Aboriginal people.
IBAC found more than 40 per cent of the complaint files "contained indicators of bias on the behalf of investigators".
It said this included investigators "minimising the seriousness of allegations, downplaying officers' conduct, making inappropriate comments about civilian witnesses and scrutinising the complainant's background or criminal history".
Of the 41 complaints made by Aboriginal people against officers, IBAC found almost half related to the alleged use of force by police.
But the Commission found Victoria Police did not uphold any complaints made about an alleged assault by an officer.
IBAC found in general very few complaints were substantiated, with just three of the 41 complaints upheld.
The report also raised concerns about the high number of complaints which involved Aboriginal children.
It found more than 40 per cent of complaints involved Aboriginal children under the age of 17. Many of these complaints involved concerns about incidents which occurred during the young person's arrest or how they were treated in custody.
IBAC made 10 recommendations for Victoria Police in its report, including:
- Systemic reform of police complaint handling system
- Establishing a dedicated process for handling of complaints made by Aboriginal people
- Addressing concerns about how police are engaging with Aboriginal children
- Ensuring Aboriginal status of complainants are accurately and consistently recorded
- Improving the quality of supervision provided to investigators to ensure their work is thorough, fair and impartial.
IBAC said its recommendations did not address "wider community concerns about the overall structure of the Victorian police complaints system" but instead shed light on how complaints by Aboriginal people were being handled.
A Victoria Police spokesperson said the force had noted the findings contained in IBAC's audit report and would now take time to consider and respond to the recommendations.
"Victoria Police is committed at all levels to achieving better outcomes for Aboriginal people in Victoria," the spokesperson said.
"We will continue to work to ensure the voices of our First Nations people are heard."
The Victorian government is reviewing the system of police oversight in Victoria.
Call for Victoria to create independent body to investigate police officers
Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service chief executive Nerita Waight said this most recent report by IBAC reinforced the need for an overhaul of the state's police complaint system.
She said many Aboriginal people don't have faith in the current system.
Ms Waight said IBAC's findings that police were failing to handle conflicts of interest properly in some cases and that bias was detected in some complaint investigations, supported what Aboriginal people had been saying for a long time.
"A lot of the time, their complaints concern serious issues such as use of force, so when these issues of conflict are not being addressed correctly, it just brings the whole matter into disrepute in my view," she said.
Ms Waight said she wanted to see Victoria set up a body independent of Victoria Police to investigate complaints against officers.
"The system is broken, police cannot continue to investigate police," she said.
"We need a new independent complaints body that has adequate powers and resources."
