The New South Wales law enforcement watchdog will consider investigating a “hidden” blacklist used by the state’s police force to target children as young as 10 for monitoring despite them not having committed any crime.
Details of the the secretive intelligence-gathering tool were revealed on Wednesday in a joint study by lawyers from the Public Interest Advocacy Centre and the University of New South Wales, which found it was used to target children as young as 10, was overwhelmingly aimed at Aboriginal people, and resulted in “oppressive policing”.
Michael Adams, the chief commissioner of the NSW police watchdog, has voiced his concerns, saying the new tool is potentially “problematic”.
Adams, who was appointed as the first commissioner of the new Law Enforcement Conduct Commission in February, said the use by police of what’s called the Suspect Target Management Plan – or STMP – could justify further investigation.
