Ombudsman calls search of Aboriginal teenager in Canberra likely unlawful
Australian Capital Territory and Commonwealth Ombudsman Iain Anderson said that Australian Capital Territory police improperly and likely unlawfully searched a 17-year-old Aboriginal teenager after he was mistakenly detained at gunpoint. The boy, given the pseudonym Jay in the report, was removed from a bus in southern Canberra last November after being confused with a man wanted over an alleged attempted car theft near Woden, ABC News Australia reports.
After the teenager was removed from the bus, he was placed face down on the ground and arrested. Police later established that they had detained the wrong person. In a 130-page report, the ombudsman said that Jay was innocent, was wrongly arrested and had potentially lethal force used against him.
Assessment of police actions
Anderson reviewed more than seven hours of CCTV and body-worn camera footage, as well as about 40 hours of police interviews. He concluded that the use of a firearm, a Taser and handcuffs during the detention was consistent with the officers' training.
However, the ombudsman deemed the subsequent situational search of the teenager improper. According to him, it was already clear at that point that Jay was not the wanted offender and had just undergone a traumatic experience because of police actions. Anderson described the incident as the result of a series of human errors and noted that the boy fully complied with police orders, preventing further escalation.
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Previous contact and racial profiling
One of the officers referred to the fact that he had detained Jay 12 days before the incident for carrying a knife in a public place. At the time, the teenager had a large prop knife for a costume and a folding knife. The ombudsman rejected this episode as sufficient grounds to suspect that the boy might again have had a knife and pointed to the risk of bias resulting from police officers' previous contacts with the young person.
The report recommends that Australian Capital Territory police review the use of race as a substitute for a description of physical features. At the same time, Anderson found no evidence that the teenager's Aboriginal background led to more intensive or harsher use of force. Police circulated a description of the wanted person that mentioned Aboriginal background, clothing, curly hair, a knife and a bag.
The report contains 22 findings and eight recommendations. The Australian Federal Police and Australian Capital Territory police fully accepted five of them and accepted another three in principle. Jay's family said that trust in the police had been destroyed, while Police Chief Scott Lee stressed that his apology to the teenager, his family and the community remained sincere.
