Review of deaths in custody investigations ordered

A review of deaths in custody investigations will tackle the stigma of ‘cover-ups’ that have dogged such cases for decades.

Professor Lorraine Mazerolle will ­conduct the review into deaths-in-custody investigations. Picture: Tim Marsden

An independent review into deaths-in-custody investigations has been ordered in Queensland after years of allegations of cover-ups over “police investigating police”.

The probe by criminologist Lorraine Mazerolle, which will ­report by early next year, will ­assess investigations into watch-house deaths, as well as those conducted into how people died after being in contact with police, such as through a domestic violence complaint. It follows years of In­digenous community complaints over police leading investigations in death-in- custody cases.

State Coroner Terry Ryan called for the review after his ­inquest into the 2018 drug overdose of Cindy Miller, 44, in a watch-house in Ipswich, west of Brisbane, which found police were not properly trained or equipped to provide medical help to the Aboriginal woman.

In his findings in January, Mr Ryan said while he did not find any major problem with the investigation into her death, there was an issue with community confidence in death-in-custody probes.

Attorney-General Shannon Fentiman said the review, which has faced opposition from some police and the police union, was important for community confidence.

“Transparency is so important to the Palaszczuk government, and that’s why we have shown leadership by accepting and implementing this key recommendation made by the State Coroner earlier this year,” she said.

The Indigenous community, including Indigenous human rights activists Gracelyn Smallwood and barrister Joshua Creamer, have called for an independent unit made up of lawyers, forensic specialists and outside ­investigators to investigate any police-related death.

Earlier this year, a NSW parliamentary committee made a similar recommendation and the calls were renewed last year amid the worldwide Black Lives Matter movement.

A major overhaul of investigations was first mooted, but abandoned after the 2004 watch-house death on Palm Island of Mulrunji Doomadgee, 36, who was found to have died from injuries sustained in a scuffle with then senior sergeant Chris Hurley.

A coroner slammed the police investigation into Mulrunji’s death as lacking “transparency, objectivity and independence”. After the inquest, Mr Hurley was charged but acquitted on manslaughter charges.

Professor Smallwood said the community could not be expected to trust police investigating their own colleagues who were sometimes, like in the Mulrunji case, their friends.

“A death in custody has to undergo an independent investigation, you can’t have police investigating police,’’ Professor Smallwood said.

“The investigation into Mulrunji’s death showed that some police will cover-up things to protect their own, and while the ­current police commissioner is reforming, there is still a long way to go.

“An independent investigative body gets rid of the potential of conflicts of interest and would give comfort to all of the community, black and white, that there won’t be a cover-up.’’

In Queensland, police conduct the investigations unless there is an apparent “suspicion of corrupt conduct or police misconduct”, in which case it is then reviewed or taken over by the Crime and ­Corruption Commission.

The inquest into the death of Miller, who after her death was found to have a clip seal bag containing methylamphetamine hidden in her vagina, died of a drug overdose.

It is not known whether she deliberately ingested the drugs in her cell or whether the drugs were inadvertently absorbed while hidden in her vagina.

In his findings, Mr Ryan said that only three of the 10 watch-house staff had completed first air or CPR training and he found that Miller had not been properly monitored in her cell.