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Parsons, Kylie; Delahunty, Brendan --- "Auditing Police Work in Local Aboriginal Communities" [2007] IndigLawB 14; (2007) 6(25) Indigenous Law Bulletin 18

Auditing Police Work in Local Aboriginal Communities

by Kylie Parsons and Brendan Delahunty

In 2006 the New South Wales (‘NSW’) Ombudsman celebrated the 10th anniversary of the creation of its Aboriginal Complaints Unit (‘ACU’).[1] Although the Ombudsman had employed Aboriginal liaison officers for many years, the Royal Commission into the New South Wales Police Service[2] recommended funding to expand the Ombudsman’s work with police and Aboriginal communities.[3] As a result, the ACU was formed to assist police in working with Aboriginal communities and to implement the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody (‘RCIADIC’).[4]

Establishing the ACU, which now has four Aboriginal staff from diverse backgrounds, has enabled the Ombudsman to achieve significant outcomes for Aboriginal people throughout NSW, particularly by working closely with all parties to resolve tensions, conflicts and disputes between police and Aboriginal communities at the earliest opportunity.

For several years the NSW Ombudsman has been scrutinising the way police relate to local Aboriginal communities across NSW. By ‘auditing’ the performance of local police commands, we have helped NSW Police to reinforce with their officers the importance and benefits of complying with the police policy relating to Aboriginal communities; the Aboriginal Strategic Direction (‘ASD’).[5]

In late 2002, the ACU selected 14 local area commands with large numbers of Aboriginal residents and relatively high rates of police contact with Aboriginal people. Our audit process involved us attending the command for a week, meeting with police, community and service providers and at the end of the week providing the commander with preliminary feedback. A detailed report was provided to the commander for comment and a final report, including recommendations, was provided to the Police Commissioner and to the Assistant Commissioner responsible for implementing Aboriginal initiatives. Most importantly, the audit process includes our return some time later to monitor each command’s compliance with our recommendations and the implementation of the ASD objectives.

Our Report to Parliament

In April 2005, we tabled a report in Parliament describing our work with Aboriginal communities and police.[6] A key purpose of that review was to identify and describe examples of innovative and practical police work, and to work closely with Aboriginal communities to reduce crime and improve outcomes. We made a number of recommendations including that NSW Police:

• identify and share examples of best practice throughout the State;

• increase their recruitment of Aboriginal officers;

• emphasise the importance of police and other agencies developing strong and meaningful partnerships with local Aboriginal communities. This is vital to the reduction of crime and to improve the impact of various government and community services.[7]

Since our report, several local commanders have established formal partnerships with their local Aboriginal communities. These initiatives go well beyond standard police-community consultative committees, with many focusing on crime prevention, child protection, youth development and preventing domestic violence. For the first time, we are able to document evidence of some impressive police leadership in innovative programs to bring together members of local Aboriginal communities, police and service organisations to confront fundamental social issues and deep-rooted problems linked with intergenerational abuse and disadvantage.

Revisiting Commands

An important part of the auditing process has been revisiting commands to see if police are acting on the community feedback and advice we had provided and to assess whether and how the situation had changed. We have now conducted follow-up reviews of all 14 of the original commands, utilising a process similar to our initial audits. We have found significant improvements in all commands that were revisited. It is particularly rewarding to see the stronger ties between police and Aboriginal communities.

In addition to returning to commands that we have already audited, we extended the program to several new locations to assess police work with Aboriginal communities. Police commands that we visited for the first time were aware of the positive outcomes being achieved in other locations through effective use of the ASD policy, and were actively exploring or implementing ways to achieve similar outcomes in their own commands. For the first time we were seeing evidence that police themselves were systematically looking for more effective ways to develop real partnerships with communities across NSW.

Case Study…

One of our first audits was a remote NSW town with 70-80 per cent Aboriginal population and significant social issues including unemployment, endemic violence and youth crime. Many of the offences committed in the command were alcohol-related.

During our initial audit, we found that the command had serious staffing shortages (of the 12 sergeant positions, nine were vacant) and no Crime Management Unit (‘CMU’) – the unit responsible for developing longer-term crime prevention measures at a local level. The CMU also has primary responsibility for implementing the aims and objectives of the ASD. This impacted directly on the police relationship with the Aboriginal community. Our recommendations sought ways to address these issues.

We returned 18 months later and found significant changes, especially around police working with the community on family violence. They had a fully staffed CMU, including the appointment of a full-time Domestic Violence Liaison Officer (‘DVLO’). The DVLO and Crime Coordinator were very active within the community. There was regular and effective communication with the Aboriginal community through a number of formal and informal mechanisms and crime prevention strategies in place, with significant achievements in family violence and youth. The initiatives were rolled out across the whole command including remote sectors.

Some of the effective communication mechanisms included: the establishment of Local Aboriginal Community Advisory Consultative Committees in all major centres in the command; active police participation on 11 committees, including the Community Drug Action Team and Domestic Violence Sub-Committee; and police working with local Elders to address issues identified by police relating to several people with alcohol problems.

Another big achievement related to a plan the command was implementing to reduce and prevent domestic violence. In partnership with the community, police had established: strategies to target repeat offenders and victims, including regular checks to ensure compliance with apprehended violence orders; referrals of victims to support services and the provision of information on apprehended violence orders; in conjunction with other services, a 16-week program for perpetrators of domestic violence; a victim follow-up program; and in conjunction with other services, crime prevention workshops in schools.

A copy of the report to Parliament, Working with Aboriginal Communities: Audit of the Implementation of the NSW Police Aboriginal Strategic Direction (2003-2006), can be found on our website at <www.ombo.nsw.gov.au/show.asp?id=375> or contact the ACU on 02 9286 1000 or toll free 1800 451 524 (within NSW) for a copy.

Kylie Parsons is a Walbanga woman from the far south coast of NSW and a Project Officer in the Ombudsman's Aboriginal Complaints Unit. Brendan Delahunty is the Principal Researcher for the Ombudsman's Research and Projects Unit, and together they and their colleagues have reviewed 20 of NSW's 80 local area commands, including two-thirds of all country commands.


[1] NSW Ombudsman <http://www.ombo.nsw.gov.au/atsi.html> at 6 February 2007.

[2] Royal Commission into the New South Wales Police Service, (1997).

[3] NSW Ombudsman, Royal Commission into the New South Wales Police Service, Interim Report (1996) para 5.111.

[4] Royal Commission Into Aboriginal Deaths In Custody (‘RCIADIC’), Report of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody (1991).

[5] NSW Ombudsman, ‘Ombudsman Report: Police Working with Aboriginal Communities’ (Press Release, 29 April 2005).

[6] NSW Ombudsman, Special Report to Parliament: Working with Local Aboriginal Communities: Audit of the Implementation of the NSW Police Aboriginal Strategic Direction (2003-2006), 2005.

[7] Ibid 29.