Submission to Inquiry into assaults on members of the NSW Police Force
4 September 2020 | Download full submission
Summary
Community Legal Centres NSW supports the right of all citizens to a safe working life and opposes violence in all its forms. We should all work towards a world where police officers do not experience assault in the lawful exercise of their duties. However we are concerned by the risk that this Inquiry may fail to consider the full range of factors that contribute to high rates of recorded assaults on police. Many of these assaults occur in a context that needs to be fully considered if the frequency of these incidents is to be reduced. We strongly believe that the ‘quick fix’ here – higher penalties – will be no fix at all, indeed it will make matters worse. This Inquiry offers the panellists the opportunity to reflect on some major social justice problems that are shaping the incidence and nature of interactions with police, including assaults. Many of these problems most significantly impact Aboriginal people in NSW. These include the overpolicing and over-incarceration of Aboriginal people in NSW, and the historical role of the Police Force in implementing NSW Government policies that have harmed Aboriginal people and communities. Other problems relate to the disproportionately negative impacts of police actions on people who experience mental ill-health.
Community Legal Centres NSW believes:
- Punitive approaches and increased sentences do not work to reduce or eliminate violence or address the socio-economic drivers of criminalised behaviours, like poverty, racism and mental illness.
- There is evidence of ongoing over-policing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and communities by the NSW Police Force, directly contributing to high rates of over-incarceration.
- Police officers and the people charged with assaulting police are held to different standards around the appropriate use of force. Courts rarely find police officers’ use of force to be excessive. However, members of over-policed communities can be - and frequently are - charged with ‘resist arrest’ and ‘assault police’ for even minor acts of non-compliance.
- Police action often escalates rather than diffuses tension in difficult situations. Police are being called as first responders in circumstances where other, more therapeutic interventions would be more helpful. One way of reducing assaults on police would be to remove them from situations where their presence is counterproductive.