Police squad computers seized in racism probe
The Northern Territory’s ICAC is holding computers from an elite police unit as it probes racism allegations from former Alice Springs officer Zachary Rolfe.
The Northern Territory’s Independent Commissioner Against Corruption has seized computers from the top end’s most elite police unit as it probes racism allegations from former Alice Springs officer Zachary Rolfe.
The NT government has confirmed its Tactical Response Group is being investigated by ICAC over shocking claims that its officers had an in house award known as “coon of the year” for lack of hygiene and poor performance.
On Monday, NT coroner Elisabeth Armitage released three of the purported awards – one was printed over the likeness of an Aboriginal flag with what appears to be dot painting as a border. The Australian has been told a private investigator has been working for Mr Rolfe to take statements from former TRG members who either know about the awards or received one.
ICAC is looking for evidence the awards were created on police computers and – if so – by which officers, The Australian has been told. ICAC is also examining whether anything has been deleted from computers recently and by whom.
NT Police are co-operating with ICAC’s investigation of the TRG, The Australian has been told. The inquiry is separate from that of police culture that is being led by NT police assistant commissioner Martin Dole as a direct result of Mr Rolfe’s broader allegations in the witness box last month.
NT coroner Elizabeth Armitage on Monday lifted a suppression order on three documents that purport to be in-house police awards for lack of hygiene and poor practice including the Nuggadah award printed over the likeness of an Aboriginal flag.
Mr Rolfe was giving evidence at the inquest of Kumanjayi Walker last month when he told Judge Armitage that the awards existed and that they were known as the “coon of the year” awards for officers “exhibiting the most coon like behaviour”.
Mr Rolfe shot Mr Walker, a 19-year-old Aboriginal man with disabilities, three times during an attempted arrest, resulting in the teen’s death at Yuendumu in 2019. He was charged with murder and he was found not guilty on all charges in relation to Mr Walker’s death at a jury trial in 2022.
However the inquest, which is ongoing, is a separate proceeding that is hearing broader evidence about police culture as well as Mr Rolfe’s actions on the day he fatally shot Mr Walker.
In front of Judge Armitage, Mr Rolfe faced questions about his own use of the word coon while serving in the NT Police in Alice Springs. He sensationally offered the awards as he sought to demonstrate a problem that he alleged went to the highest levels of NT Police.
Asked at the inquest if he embraced the racist language used by some police during his three years as a serving officer in Alice Springs, Mr Rolfe said: “I wouldn’t say embraced but it rubbed off on me.”
The documents that Judge Armitage allowed to be published on Monday include one with the words “NUGGADAH WINNER” printed on an Aboriginal flag. The name of a constable is blacked out but the following words are legible: “CAUTION for a rape … that’s all that needs to be said”.
Mr Rolfe’s claims about the awards prompted NT Police to almost immediately present the coroner with affidavits from former TRG members including that the awards were not about race.
The affidavits from current and former TRG officers describe a range of in-house awards for “stuff ups” including the Nuggadah. The name of the award was changed to Voldermoort in 2022. The Nuggadah was once awarded to an officer who left a snack of boiled eggs in a police vehicle over a hot weekend and the vehicle had to be fumigated. Another recipient put his stool sample in the communal lunch fridge to keep it cool for his doctor.
The Nuggadah was inspired by an officer who did not shower for more than a week while on a remote search and rescue job, according to former TRG member Meacham King in his affidavit. The trophy for this award was a club from a Bombax tree seized by police from rival Aboriginal clans in the West Daly region.
Another award, the Sooty, was named after an officer who was covered in diesel soot from an exhaust pipe during a training drill gone wrong.
“None of the awards have any connotation to race. The awards are not meant to be offensive,” senior sergeant King wrote in his affidavit.
The description of the awards by senior sergeant King were from his memory because he does not have copies and never received one, according to his written evidence.
Nuggadah was a made up word that probably came from Neanderthal, because that is what TRG members were often called, senior sergeant King said.
The officer in charge of the Tactical Response Group in Darwin, Senior Sergeant Mark Clemmens, said in his affidavit that he had never heard of the Nuggadah being called the “coon of the year” award until Mr Rolfe called it that in his evidence to the coroner.
“I would not tolerate such an abhorrent award or the use of such racist language,” senior sergeant Clemmens wrote in his affidavit.
“The TRG is not racist. Systemic racism does not exist in the TRG.”
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