Corruption body to probe ‘serious incident’ complaints against police

Victoria’s independent corruption body will review more than 50 “serious incident” complaints made by Aboriginal people.

Aboriginal man Eathan Cruse was awarded $400,000 this week over an arrest that was ruled by a judge to be unlawful. Picture: AAP

Victoria’s independent corruption body will review more than 50 “serious incident” complaints made against police by Aboriginal people.

The Independent Broadbased Anti-Corruption Commission announced today it will undertake an audit of 55 complaints closed last year by Victoria Police.

“The audit is examining 55 files closed by Victoria Police during 2018 where the complainant or a person involved in a serious incident following contact with Victoria Police has been identified as an Aboriginal person,” IBAC said in a statement.

The announcement comes after Eathan Cruse, who is Aboriginal, was awarded $400,000 in damages by Victoria’s Supreme Court on Wednesday.

Mr Cruse was assaulted by police during his arrest at his parents’ southeast Melbourne home in April 2015 as part of Operation Rising to thwart a suspected terror ­attack on Anzac Day.

IBAC said the audit intended to improve the handling of complaints against Victoria Police made by Aboriginal people as well as raise awareness of IBAC’s role played among indigenous communities.

“IBAC’s audit aims to identify issues and potential areas where Victoria Police can improve its handling of complaints by Aboriginal people, and also identify good practice that Victoria Police could consider more broadly,” said a spokeswoman.

“The audit also aims to raise awareness of IBAC’s police oversight role among Aboriginal people.”

Mr Cruse, then 19, was arrested in connection to a plot to behead a police officer, but was released without charge hours after his arrest.

The Supreme Court found officers ­arrested Mr Cruse because they had been directed to do so and used excessive force.

Meanwhile, Victoria’s Coroner Court is examining the role systemic racism played in the 2017 death of Yorta Yorta woman Tanya Day. Ms Day died from head injuries after being taken into police custody.

The corruption body will consult with Aboriginal groups and organisations and will release a public report on the audit next year.

Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service CEO Nerita Waight said they welcomed the review of the state’s “broken police complaints system” but said an audit was limited.

“VALS and the communities we serve would prefer to see the government and agencies like IBAC focusing on structural reform of a broken police complaints system, rather than well-intentioned but critically limited audit projects,” she said.

“Police should not be investigating each other’s misconduct. Until the Government implements the recommendations of the 2018 Parliamentary committee and introduces a dedicated and properly resourced body for the investigation of police misconduct, many Victorian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community members will see little point in submitting a complaint at all.”

A Victorian parliamentary committee last year made 69 recommendations to improve the state’s police complaint system, which it found was “extraordinarily complex and confusing”.

Ms Waight said indigenous communities had no faith in IBAC.

“The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities’ lack of faith in investigation of police complaints also extends to IBAC itself, who mostly refer complaints of police misconduct to Victoria Police for internal investigation.”