A community ambassador at the centre of a civil case over alleged racial profiling of African-Australian men has welcomed a landmark report aimed at improving strained relations between Victorian police and African youth.
But Maki Issa, one of six men involved in the racial profiling case, said interactions between police and African youth in the west remained tense despite significant inroads.
The men, who were teenagers at the time, say they were assaulted by police and were often stopped, questioned and searched because they were black.
Mr Issa’s comments come in the wake of the Victoria Police Equality is not the Same report, a three-year plan aimed at reducing racial profiling. The report is the result of a court settlement reached between police and the Flemington and Kensington Legal Centre last February, after claims by the men that they were racially discriminated against in the Flemington and North Melbourne areas between 2005 and 2009.
The report includes plans for a one-year pilot program requiring police to issue contact receipts and undergo mandatory racial profile training. Mr Issa said implementing the recommendations of the report were a step towards addressing the issue of racial profiling.
“It is an optimistic first step that will ensure transparency and hopefully a reduction in profiling,” he said. “While the relationship between the [police] force and youth has improved in some areas, there are still youth coming to me saying they are facing unfair treatment or that they feel targeted and intimidated by the police.”
Mr Issa added that he wanted to see the words “discrimination” and “racism” incorporated more intensely in the report.
Legal Centre chief executive officer Anthony Kelly said the report showed that Victoria Police had listened to the views of the community and acknowledged the validity of their concerns. “The accountability measures, data monitoring and receipting, if used together, can form the sort of reforms needed and potentially place Victoria Police among the leaders around the world in trying to abolish discriminatory policing.”
» A forum on the issue will be from 5pm today (Wednesday) at the African Australian Community Centre, 30a Pickett Street, Footscray
