Media Release forwarded from Christine Howes: 24 February 2000 Townsville ATSIC Regional Council Chairman calls for "drastic" changes to Queensland police procedures Townsville ATSIC Regional Council Chairman, Mr Eddie Smallwood, says protocols and guidelines on how police go about their work and relations with the indigenous community need to be "drastically" overhauled. Mr Smallwood, a police liaison officer with the Queensland Police Service for five years, but now on leave without pay as a result as his election last month as the ATSIC Regional Council Chairman, says that the first place to start is the training at the Police Academy. Mr Smallwood said his comments followed the "unanimous" decision yesterday by a meeting of all of ATSIC 's elected leaders from across Queensland, which condemned the controversial arrest last week of prominent Aboriginal health advisor Professor Gracelyn Smallwood. Mr Smallwood, who is also a brother of Professor Smallwood, says "a major change in police attitude and relations with indigenous people is long overdue." Mr Smallwood said this is a major issue for the police. And has called for the Queensland Police Commissioner, Jim Sullivan, to order a major review. "'Because it goes the whole question of community confidence in the police. " And I have to say that there is a total lack of confidence in the police in our community. "And any police service that lacks the confidence of the community it is there to serve, is in a lot of trouble. He says that the police service should sit down and meet with the local indigenous community and our law and justice groups and work through this. "So we can help them develop an appropriate package for use at the academy. "I think there is a now an overwhelming case for a major overhaul of guidelines, protocols and procedures on how the police go about their work in our community. "For indigenous people this issue is not just about any one particular person. "It's about an ingrained attitude towards indigenous people. "An attitude that we saw here in Townsville last Friday night. "An attitude we saw in Brisbane just a week earlier in the way police went about arresting young school children at the Murri School. "An attitude we saw identified more than10 years which lead to the Royal Commission into to Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. "An attitude that has clearly not gone away, has clearly not changed. "An attitude that we still have to deal with everyday of our lives in the way that we are treated by police," he said. It is in the interests of everyone in the community, including the police service, that they recognise there is something amiss and that major change is needed, Townsville's ATSIC Chairman said. -- ********************************* Make the Hunger Site your homepage! http://www.thehungersite.com/index.html ********************************* ------------------------------------------------------- RecOzNet2 has a page @ http://www.green.net.au/recoznet2 and is archived at http://www.mail-archive.com/ To unsubscribe from this list, mail [EMAIL PROTECTED], and in the body of the message, include the words: unsubscribe announce or click here mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20announce This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use." RecOzNet2 is archived for members @ http://www.mail-archive.com/recoznet2%40paradigm4.com.au/
