Updates and latest news

Independent Broad-based Anti-Corruption Commission (IBAC) will begin its controversial public examinations into a long legacy of allegations of serious police misconduct by police at Victoria’s Ballarat Station today

We will have observers at these public hearings, titled Operation Ross, at the Ballarat court complex each day from 23 to 27 May.

Graeme Jensen’s sister Fay Spear has filed an application with the Coroner’s Court to re-open the Inquest into the police shooting of her brother on 11 October 1988

Victorian man Craig Love has today been told that the Victorian Government will compensate him for being assaulted, wrongfully arrested, falsely imprisoned and trespassed against by serving members of Victoria Police.

Coupled with the sweeping legal powers described above, when a government deliberately creates a uniformed branch from what was previously an administrative agency, gives it an aggressive name and appoints a former police officer to lead it, it is hardly surprising if its members consider they have the green light to present a threatening image to the public.

The Court of Appeal has handed down its appeal decision in the matter of Bare v IBAC which could have far-reaching implications for the investigation of complaints against police in Victoria.

A new report, released by the Flemington and Kensington Community Legal Centre today, calls for an independent body to handle complaints about policing, to ensure officers were made more accountable for their actions.

The Victorian Ombudsman has observed that people detained in custody in Victoria face a greater risk of harm than at any time in the past decade.  Against this context, the need for accountability for what takes place in Victorian prisons is greater than ever, to ensure that people are kept safe by those entrusted with their care. But a...

Our contribution to the Royal Commission comes from the perspective of our Police Accountability Project clients, some of whom have been respondents to family violence complaints and/or victims of family violence.

This short submission highlight common concerns to both groups, which relate to how police have responded to family violence issues and how those complaints in turn, are received and…

The family and community trauma caused by a death in custody cannot be over-stated.

A respected Aboriginal man from central Australia died in Darwin’s police cells two weeks ago. Few facts are known: he was taken into custody for minor alcohol-related offences, he was detained under new “paperless arrest” police powers, he was found dead in his cell about three…

Before these cameras are rolled out across the state, Victorians should consider whether police body cameras are a desirable approach to counter police misconduct. That is, we should ask: Will BWCs actually improve police accountability?

Victoria Police are currently piloting ‘stop & search’ receipting in Dandenong and Moonee Valley. Here are five things you should know about receipting.

On 15th April 2015 an IBAC hearing into a potential culture of violence within the Victoria Police Service at Ballarat was due to be heard at the County Court in Melbourne.

The Police Accountability Project is deeply concerned by accounts given by people experienced the police raids in Melbourne this weekend, of being racially abused and assaulted by Police members involved.

Police and Protective Services Officers (PSOs) will issue receipts to members of the community initially in the Moonee Valley and Greater Dandenong Local Government Areas (LGAs) from 30 March until the end of December 2015

We are calling for a wider review of powers, weapons and training associated with the PSO program currently in operating on Victoria’s public transport network. As reports of the use of capsicum weapons against children stretch over many years it is important that this is not treated as an isolated incident.

The Victorian Police Commissioner Ken Lay announced his resignation in early January 2015, to near universal acclaim. Anthony Kelly from the Flemington Kensington Community Legal Centre provides a restrospective on his work dealing with racism

An appeal decision has been handed down in the Victorian Supreme Court which could set back Victoria Police efforts to end racial profiling in Victoria.

The outcome overturns magistrate Duncan Reynolds’ 2013 ruling that police do not have an “unfettered” right to randomly stop and check vehicles.

Professor Philip Alston delivered a scathing indictment of Australia’s recent legislative response to perceived security issues. Titled “Could Australia really become a police state?” the speech detailed the striking similarities between the Federal Government’s recent swathe of security measures and the activities of totalitarian governments throughout modern history.

A feature article in the most recent Law Institute Journal, In Search of Certainty, examines the issues surrounding the new Victoria Police Act and its implications for police accountability in Victoria.

Two young men from Flemington, Daniel Haile Michael and Maki Issa have been shortlisted for the Australian Human Rights Commission’s Young People’s Human Rights Medal for their work against racial profiling.

A Federal Senator has made a strong call for an independent body to investigate and prosecute cases of misconduct by police in Victoria.   In a speech to Federal Senate on Tuesday 30th September, Senator Gavin Marshall (Victoria—Deputy President of the Senate and Chair of Committees) welcomed the compensation recently awarded to Ms Corinna Horvath who was brutally assaulted...

Corrinna Horvath has recieved a welcome and a significant compensation from the State of Victoria along with an apology from Chief Commissioner Ken Lay.

A death we need to learn from Findings from the long running inquest into the death of a young Ethiopian-Australian man, Michael Atakelt. who was found dead in the Maribyrnong River in 2011 were handed down on Thursday 28th August, 2014. Michael’s body was found floating near the Raleigh Rd, Maribyrnong pontoon on July 7, 2011.  Issues had been...

When it comes to police violence and misconduct Victoria’s laws protect police, not its citizens. The new Victoria Police Act 2013, which came into force in July, may already need to be amended due to a recent United Nations Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) decision.

After decades of public controversy, the British Government has launched a new scheme to monitor and hold police stop and search practices to account.   In a move that could be replicated by Victoria Police in Australia, all police forces in England and Wales have agreed to adopt a new government code of conduct on the use of their...