Police Commissioner Jamie Chalker to hold racism talks with hundreds of officers after text revelations

NT Police’s top brass say tears have flowed as they begin looking hundreds of officers in the eye for ‘deep and meaningful’ discussions following revelations of racism within the force.

Commissioner Jamie Chalker will personally speak to all 195 sergeants in the NT Police force following revelations of racism. Picture: Glenn Campbell

NT Police Commissioner Jamie Chalker will personally sit down with every cop of the rank of sergeant and above to try to weed out bigots following revelations of “racist, sexist (and) homophobic” attitudes within the force.

Deputy Commissioner Murray Smalpage this week became the latest in a string of senior officers to denounce text messages between Constable Zach Rolfe and other officers – including a sergeant – as “totally unacceptable”.

Constable Rolfe was acquitted on all charges over the fatal shooting of Kumanjayi Walker during a botched arrest in Yuendumu in 2019 before the texts emerged at an inquest into the 19-year-old Warlpiri-Luritja man’s death.

Under questioning from NT Police barrister, Ian Freckelton KC, as the inquiry continued on Tuesday, Mr Smalpage denied the attitudes expressed in the texts were widespread.

But Mr Freckelton countered that “we now know that there is at least a cohort of people who are utterly racist, sexist, homophobic, contemptuous of remote policing and disrespectful of persons such as yourself”.

“How do you know that that’s not a general and prevalent attitude within your force, given you didn’t know about this group until the serendipitous discovery of these messages?” he asked.

Mr Smalpage responded that while he accepted rank and file members were “highly unlikely to sit in front of me and use that type of terminology”, he would “terminate my commission and leave” if he thought he was wrong.

“I sit here, your honour, with an NT Police uniform on, I swore an oath when I took this role, I hold that oath very close to my heart,” he said.

“I wouldn’t tolerate to be a member of this agency if I honestly believed that we held these deep-seated racist views.

NT Police Deputy Commissioner Murray Smalpage said tears flowed during the ‘deep and meaningful’ discussions. Picture: Jason Walls

“However, I accept from what I’ve read and what I saw that there are people who do use those communications and it’s not acceptable and it never will be acceptable.”

Mr Smalpage said Mr Chalker, along with himself and fellow Deputy Commissioner Michael Murphy, had already met with every member of the force at the rank of senior sergeant and above to discuss the issue.

“We sat down and we had a heart-to-heart conversation about what the NT Police force expected,” he said.

“In my 44 years as a police officer I’ve never been involved in anything as powerful as that.

“The ability to sit down with the senior executive of the police force is almost nigh on impossible in any other jurisdiction, but we made the effort and we sat down and we looked every one of those people in the eye.

“There were tears in that room from various people, it was very, very deep and meaningful about expectations and what role they could (play) to provide future leadership for the NT Police force.”

Mr Smalpage said Mr Chalker had now begun the same process with all 195 NT Police sergeants to “have the same conversations again about expectations, leadership, cultural values”.

Mr Smalpage will continue his evidence in the Alice Springs Local Court on Wednesday.

Originally published as Police Commissioner Jamie Chalker to hold racism talks with hundreds of officers after text revelations