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Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are advised that this website contains the names and images of people who have passed
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Police instructions require humane and courteous behaviour
That police instructions should require that, at all times, police should interact with detainees in a manner which is both humane and courteous. Police authorities should regard it as a serious breach of discipline for an officer to speak to a detainee in a deliberately hurtful or provocative manner.
Priority for Further Work:
High
Relevance and potential impact | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Low (0-2) | Moderate (3-4) | High (5-6) | |||
Extent of action taken and evidence of outcomes | High (5-6) | ||||
Moderate (3-4) | |||||
Low (0-2) | |||||
Background
The Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody (RCIADIC) noted the impacts of police attitudes and harmful behaviour in several cases examined by the Commission:
. . .the attitudes of some officers towards those in their care were deplorable, and in some cases, it was found that those attitudes were a contributing factor in the deaths in that they may have exacerbated feelings of distress or anger felt by those who took their own lifes [sic].
The Commissioners emphasised the importance of recruit and in-service training to ‘instil in officers the importance of positive attitudes towards prisoners at all times and attempt to eradicate the practise of stereotyping certain classes of persons’.