Police accused of racial discrimination in stalled search for drowned Indigenous man
The Indigenous Copeland family will argue that negligence and discrimination by NSW police led to the death of a 22-year-old relative and stalled the search for his remains.
The family of an Indigenous man who drowned evading police has accused the state of NSW of racial discrimination, fighting for a court order that would force NSW police to institute years-old coronial recommendations prompted by his death.
The 22-year old Gomeroi man – whom The Australian has chosen not to name in the interest of cultural sensitivity – died in July 2021 wading into the Gwydir River in Moree after he and two friends were chased off-road by police.
A subsequent coronial inquest found police spent just 10 minutes looking for him before assuming he had evaded them.
His body was not recovered until October after his family demanded further investigation. The coronial inquest was scathing of investigative conduct and prompted apologies from the NSW Police Force and officers involved.
The deceased’s widow, Josephine Brown, and his family – mother Narelle Copeland, sister Bianca Copeland and aunts Jacinta Copeland and Lesley Fernando – in June launched Federal Court racial discrimination proceedings against the state of NSW, acting on behalf of NSW police.
It follows a failed mediation process in the Human Rights Commission. In the Copeland family’s court application, acquired by The Australian, they sought damages, compensation and legal costs along with court-ordered reform directing Moree police to undergo First Nations sensitivity training.
State Coroner Teresa O’Sullivan had recommended two years prior that NSW police “consider providing officers with training on trauma-informed communication with families, particularly First Nations families” as well as Indigenous history.
NSW police gave no comment when asked whether it had either implemented or committed to implement the relevant coronial recommendations before facing court action. It also declined to say how it would approach the case.
In the early hours of July 10, 2021, the Gomeroi man hitched a ride with two friends along a road on the outskirts of Moree. The driver spotted a police car and changed course to avoid it.
Police officers began tailing the car but would later acknowledge they had not directed the driver to stop and only suspected it was a stolen vehicle.
The deceased was never accused of criminal wrongdoing.
Abandoning the car, the man waded into the Gwydir River and the officers quickly abandoned their search. A second, more thorough search began hours later where police heard the man groaning, but it was also called off before he was found.
When family members tried to report him missing, they were dismissed in a manner Ms O’Sullivan said was “completely inappropriate”, with police mistakenly directing them to file a report at a station hundreds of kilometres away.
Calling off the search was “a very significant mistake” that “led to the fraught discussions between police and family that night … adding to their pain and anxiety”, she found. “It has had a corrosive impact on the relationship between some Aboriginal families in Moree and the NSWPF that will take a long time to heal,” the coronial findings read.
After three months of advocacy and their own searching, the Copeland family convinced police to renew the search and the man’s body was found 447m from where he was suspected to have entered the river.
Ms Brown and the Copeland family will argue in the Federal Court that police were negligent and racially discriminatory in how they fielded their initial missing persons report.
“After 22 long months of fighting for justice for Gordon, we will continue – there was no justice here today,” Ms Fernando said after the inquest, according to ABC News.
“Today is the end of the inquest, but it isn’t the end for us.”
Ms O’Sullivan said it was “doubtful that a third search … would have been undertaken” if not for the “tireless advocacy” of his family.
Ms Brown and the Copeland family’s legal representative, O’Brien Solicitors founder Peter O’Brien, drew comparison between the case and the coronial inquest into the death of Warlpiri man Kumanjayi White, arguing both cases indicated callous attitudes by police towards Indigenous communities and intransigence in the face of sought reforms.
“The real concern is the apparent systemic racism that appears to emulate from each of these deaths … in terms of the manner in which Indigenous people are treated by police,” Mr O’Brien said. “(There) can be no doubt that the implementation of recommendations such as those proposed by the coroner in this case will substantially improve the lives and policing of Aboriginal people within our community; they are sensible recommendations that may well save lives.
“The family are interested in ensuring, so far as possible, justice in the light of the death of the deceased, someone who was loved by them all.”
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