Racial Profiling, Policing and Lack of Accountability
摘要
On 8th May 2023 following from decades of agitation by Aboriginal leaders, families and organisations, Victoria’s Chief Commissioner of Police issued an apology for the systemic racism, racist attitudes and discriminatory actions of police towards Aboriginal people and committed to ‘address systemic racism, unconscious bias or unequal use of discretionary power in outcomes’ (Yoorrook Justice Commission Transcript, 8 May 2023, p 496, 497). While the apology felt momentous, given the history of police racism in Victoria, how much faith can communities really place in the Chief Commissioner’s commitment to change? In this chapter I explore what it would take for police and the government in Victoria to address racial discrimination by police. To do this, I firstly I examine the police accountability systems in England, Wales and Canada and some strategies being used to address racial profiling. After observing that these strategies are not effectively reducing racial profiling, I make suggestions that involve reducing the role of police through creating alternatives to police and addressing inequality. State failures to meet the basic social, economic and cultural rights of all people and to remedy the intergenerational harms of colonisation, slavery, dispossession and genocide cannot be answered with police and prisons. This chapter provides a road map for the Victorian government to effectively address systemic racism in policing.