Report finds NSW Police suspect lists led to ‘gross over-representation’ of Indigenous people

A discontinued NSW Police policy that attempted to proactively prevent crime through suspect lists led to an over-representation of young Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people as targets, a report has found.

The Aboriginal Legal Service NSW/ACT CEO, Karly Warner, said the report was ‘damning’.

‘Abolition of the STMP was the only appropriate response,’ she said.

‘It is imperative that any replacement is not just an STMP by another name but developed in partnership with the Coalition of Aboriginal Peak Organisations of NSW.’

Jonathon Hunyor, the CEO of Public Interest Advocacy Centre, said the report exposed police ‘acting unlawfully in their harassment of young people’ under the policy.

‘NSW Police needs to comprehensively re-set its approach to young people, with external input and oversight, to avoid a repeat of the failure and misconduct exposed by the LECC,’ he said.

 
 
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