‘These rates are astonishing’: Victoria Police’s profiling problem laid bare in new report

A disproportionate number of police searches against Aboriginal, African, Middle Eastern and Pacific Island communities has prompted accusations against Victoria Police of racially discriminating.

Research by the Centre Against Racial Profiling found people perceived by police to be Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander were 15 times more likely to be searched than white people in 2024, but were less likely to be found with prohibited items, such as drugs or weapons.

A new report shows Aboriginal, African, Middle Eastern and Pacific Island communities account for a disproportionate number of searches and interactions involving force by Victoria Police.Credit: Jason South

First Nations people were also 10 times more likely to have force, or the threat of force used against them by police, while officers were 13 times more likely to use, or threaten to use tasers on those perceived to be Aboriginal.

The report, based on data obtained from Victoria Police under freedom of information laws, also identified racial profiling of African community members, who were eight times more likely to be searched by police than white people in 2024, but also less likely to be found in possession of banned items.

Those perceived to be African were seven times more likely to be the subject of a forceful interaction with police, who were also 24 times more likely to initiate a pursuit against someone of African appearance.

According to the report due to be released on Monday, police were five times more likely to use, or threaten force against a Pacific Islander than a white person in 2024.

Those perceived by police to be Middle Eastern were more than twice as likely to be involved in a forceful interaction with police compared to white people.

Since 2019, police officers have been able to record the ethnic appearance of those searched without a warrant, when they suspect a person has committed, or is about to commit an offence, or can assist with the investigation of a serious offence. The ethnicity of anyone arrested or detained by police is recorded based on their self-identification.

A Victoria Police spokesman said officers were trained to respond to a person’s behaviour, not their background, and said the force had “zero tolerance towards racial profiling”.

“Assertions made in this research are incorrect. It is not mandatory for police to record ethnic appearance information when conducting all searches,” the spokesman said.

“It’s important to clarify that the use of force includes not just physical force but when police merely threaten to use force. For tasers, this includes when members draw their device, but it’s never actually discharged.

“This is the case in close to nine out of every 10 incidents involving tasers.”

However, Dr Tamar Hopkins, the author of the centre’s report, said the information obtained from Victoria Police clearly demonstrated its officers engaged in racial profiling.

“It’s time the police and government took the police’s own data seriously and took action to stop the over-policing of particular racialised communities in Victoria,” Hopkins said.

“The increased rate of stop, investigation, questioning and search of these groups is likely to be behind the higher use of force.”

In 2015, Victoria Police became the first Australian law enforcement agency to officially define and prohibit racial profiling by its officers.

The Victoria Police Manual defines the practice as “making policing decisions that are not based on objective or reasonable justification, but on stereotypical assumptions about race, colour, language, ethnicity, ancestry or religion”.

Hopkins said the apparent targeting of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people was particularly troubling.

“These statistics indicate that systemic racism in policing was not solved by the chief commissioner of police’s apology to the Yoorrook Commission in 2023. Systemic racism is not a thing of the past, but is alive and well today,” she said.

Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service chief executive Nerita Waight said the research proved discrimination and abuses of power by police, which she said could not be attributed to a “few bad apples”.

“These rates are astonishing, and the report highlights Victoria Police members continuing to engage in disturbing racist policing practices with little accountability and no independent oversight,” Waight told The Age.

“This initial contact with police forges a path that our community are disproportionately familiar with – being forced to interact with the criminal legal system. The psychological harm and impact this has on families and communities is felt deeply.”

Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service chief executive Nerita Waight says the research proves discrimination and abuses of power by police.

The allegations of discrimination have prompted fresh calls for the Allan government to introduce an independent police ombudsman to investigate police misconduct.

Human Rights Law Centre associate legal director Monique Hurley said the recent expansion of police powers by the government had “green-lit this kind of heavy-handed and discriminatory policing”.

“The Allan government must stop endlessly expanding police powers, support community-led alternatives to policing, and end the status quo of police impunity by creating an independent police ombudsman now,” Hurley said.

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