Paul Gregoire reports in Sydney Criminal Lawyers.
Released last week, NSW Police Person Searches: A Disproportionate Impact is a report based on data regarding person searches, obtained by Redfern Legal Centre, via the Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009 (NSW), which covers the period from 1 July 2018 to 21 May 2022.
And the figures reflect a clear bias involved in the way that NSW police officers are applying these searches.
This prejudice is exposed in the disproportionate number of searches carried out upon First Nations people and the young in general, as well as by the statistics relating to the different locations where these searches are being conducted.
Over the period to which the statistics apply, NSW police carried out a total of 855,038 person searches statewide, 65,131 of which were imposed upon First Nations people, who the inquiry found are twice as likely to be searched by state law enforcement officers than non-Indigenous locals.
“Aside from revealing the overrepresentation of First Nations peoples, the figures also reveal that all children were overrepresented,” reads a 13 February release statement.
“Of the total searches in NSW for the data period, 112,050 searches – 13 percent – were done on children, although children only comprise 9.7 percent of the NSW population.”
Read the full article here (21 February 2023).
