Victorian police investigate race claims

VICTORIAN police are conducting a "major investigation" into racist attitudes in the force.

THE director of Victoria's Office of Police Integrity has revealed Victorian police are conducting a "major investigation" into racist attitudes in the force as a result of information provided by the OPI.

Michael Strong said the OPI was also investigating allegations of assault made by "a group of African-Australians in the western suburbs" of Melbourne.

Mr Strong, a former County Court judge, defended the OPI against claims that it had failed to adequately investigate allegations of racism by police, including allegations of criminal behaviour.

He said the OPI did not have the capacity to investigate more than a small number of complaints and it was appropriate that most were investigated by the police Ethical Standards Department, whose conclusions were then "reviewed" by the OPI.

Mr Strong said he did not believe racism was greater in police ranks than in the community, "but it undoubtedly exists and must be treated as a systemic problem". Mr Strong also said a cartoon of the OPI complaints desk on the front page of The Australian yesterday was offensive and unfair.

His comments drew a sharp response from the author of a report on police racism in the Flemington and Kensington areas, community lawyer Tamar Hopkins, who said the OPI's oversight of investigations of racist behaviour by police was "superficial at best".

However, Police Minister Bob Cameron said yesterday: "The Victorian government takes this issue very seriously and has been assured that Victoria Police will thoroughly investigate any allegations of racism."

Victoria's Police Association described documented accounts of racism in the ranks, ranging from verbal abuse to vicious beatings, as "wild and untested allegations".

Association secretary Greg Davies said claims by the director of the Springvale Monash Legal Service, Helen Yandell, that there was a culture of racism in the force "bordered on the hysterical".

"These comments have no basis in proven fact and do nothing to progress relationships between police and ethnic groups," he said.

"Statements that allege police strip off and cavort naked through parks, waiting to assault innocent passers-by of African origin, are simply unbelievable," he said.