Senior NT cop “dressed as KKK” to scare Indigenous residents

A senior NT police officer dressed as Ku Klux Klan member and drove around Alice Springs to frighten Indigenous local residents, according to previously secret evidence from a former cop.

A NT Police TRG award issued in 2015, set to the background of William H. West’s Big Minstrel Jubilee, featuring a caricature of what appears to be a person wearing blackface. Picture: Supplied

A former Northern Territory police officer claims an executive member of the force dressed as a member of the Ku Klux Klan and drove around Alice Springs to scare Indigenous residents.  The same senior officer, who has since left the force, “made fun of a coloured police officer” by calling him Rodney King – a reference to the African-American man brutally beaten by Los Angeles police – according to a statutory declaration from former Territory Response Group officer Carey Joy.

The revelation comes after the NT Independent Commission Against Corruption controversially closed its investigation into five TRG officers who engaged in shocking racist mock awards ­because there was “no admissible evidence”.

ICAC delegate Patricia Kelly SC ruled that no further action could be taken against the five ­because then-ICAC commissioner Michael Riches had given assurances to officers who came forward with contrary evidence that they would have their identities protected. That meant no prosecutions were possible.

Former NT Police Territory Response Group member Carey Joy outside the Alice Springs Local Court in May for an inquest into the death of Kumanjayi Walker. Picture: Jason Walls

Ms Kelly did not explain why the five officers were not questioned about the inconsistencies between their sworn declarations and the contrary evidence presented to court, or whether any ­attempt was made to do so.

Mr Joy, a Territory policeman for 16 years before leaving in 2016, was one of the police officers who responded to the request by Mr Riches to come forward to ICAC with information relevant to his investigation of the “coon awards”.

It was Mr Joy who first told Police Commissioner Michael Murphy about the racist awards last year. But in a move that would dramatically undermine his leadership – and lead him into direct conflict with his own force – Mr Murphy later publicly denied having known about the awards.

Only when compelled to give evidence at the inquest into the death of Kumanjayi Walker did Mr Murphy reveal he had known all along but had “forgotten” about the conversation.

Police Commissioner Michael Murphy. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

A heavily redacted copy of Mr Joy’s statutory declaration, dated May 20, 2024, was released by the inquest but an unredacted copy has been seen by The Weekend Australian.

Mr Joy states in the declaration that he recently had a conversation with a former Territory ­politician about a former NT police deputy commissioner who described Indigenous people as “boongs”.

But the most concerning incidents, Mr Joy said, involved a former police executive member who had called a member of his recruit squad ‘Rodney King’, an incident Mr Joy said he believed had also been detailed by another police officer in a statement to the coroner.

“The executive was also ­detailed by other witnesses as having one night after rugby, being seen imitating a KKK member and claiming to drive around Alice Springs to scare indigenous locals,” he said.

Reference was also made to the incident on social media by other police officers, he said.

A social media post attached to the declaration states: “But it’s ok to dress up in funny white sheets and a pointy hat and go out a (sic) flog if (sic) few of the brothers, then wipe them from your memory. Shame Shame Shame.”

A social media post reflecting on the alleged actions of senior Northern Territory police officer who dressed as a member of the Ku Klux Klan

Another post says: “This is the same … who nicknamed one of his own squad mates Rodney King, the token black.”

Mr Joy stresses in the statutory declaration that he does not ­believe most Territory police officers are racist, but acknowledges that racist language is common in the force. He says the contradictory sworn declarations are of greater concern than the mock awards. “We have seen what appears to be a large group of officers, supervisors who seem to be comfortable with providing sworn statutory declarations which appear to not contain ‘accurate’ information,” he says.

“This shows more of a concerning culture in the Police Force than that of offensive awards. These awards were held in private and do not pose the risk of people losing their freedoms, being charged or potentially facing custodial penalties.

“Officers providing inaccurate sworn statutory declarations, under oath, to a judge in an official court setting is simply a terrifying concept when it relates to supervisor ranks all the way up to ­Assistant Commissioner.”

In her ICAC report, Ms Kelly found there were some “statements which tend to contradict some of the statements made by the five police officers” and agreed that some of the mock certificates were “evidently on their face ­racist”.

“It is difficult to conclude how any person of reasonable intelligence could conclude otherwise,” she said.

In another sign of the growing divide between the top brass and frontline Territory police, Mr Joy says there is a culture of fear in speaking up or disagreeing with the executive group.

“In NTPOL now if a member speaks up or refuses to comply with a direction even if the direction is unlawful/unethical the ­junior officer will be targeted,” he says.

“We have seen this with officers who found they had no choice but to speak to the media to try to get help and they would be terminated immediately. This is a very sad and dangerous feeling within the police force.”

The legal team for former police officer Zachary Rolfe presented these documents to the NT coroner Elisabeth Armitage this month as examples of the awards that the NT Police's most elite unit, the Territory Response Group, presented at its annual party.

Mr Joy says that when, in 2019, he was approached by Mr Murphy to re-apply to join the force, a senior police officer objected, stating “Carey Joy has been critical of our decision to charge Rolfe, this is not the sort of person we want in our police force”.

Mr Joy is highly critical in his statement of senior police for their role in the operation to arrest ­Kumanjayi Walker, claiming “it would appear these people pass through to leadership roles without showing any form of actual high-risk awareness, planning ability or tested skills in deployments of armed human assets in such circumstances”.

In one example, Mr Joy cites an email sent to by a senior officer to staff at Yuendumu just days before the incident in which policeman Zachary Rolfe shot Kumanjayi Walker, saying: “I see the Walpiri’s with the surname of Walker are still ours and my nemesis”.

Former NT police officer Zachary Rolfe after giving evidence at the inquest into the death of Kumanjayi Walker. Picture: Liam Mendes

“The concerns and issues with this are very obvious given firstly this is … describing an entire traditional clan of indigenous people and specifically one Walpiri family group as the personal enemy of his and the entire NT Police Force.

“I find it quite contradictory that lower ranked staff can face such scrutiny for private text messages on their personal devices, yet this comment doesn’t appear to have been formally addressed or apologised for which took place on official NTPOL communication systems.

“This is concerning as there ­appears to be a manner in which selected staff have had their private lives, personal interactions weaponised against them by the executive throughout this process yet senior staff are not held to ­account for things they have said in public and on official workplace communications.”