Stella Simmering
Guilty until proven innocent
The second draft of the Crimes Amendment Bill (Victoria) gives police the power to obtain name and address from the public on demand. If a person refuses, s/he is guilty of a summary offence and is liable to a $500 fine. Police can demand that a person give their name and address if they have reasonable grounds to believe that the person has committed or is about to commit an offence.
In the same way, intimate (i.e. blood, pubic hair including the root, anal swab, external genital swab, breast swab, saliva, scraping of mouth, dental impression) or non-intimate body samples can be taken from a person if the police have reasonable grounds to believe that the procedure would tend to confirm or disprove involvement in the commission of an offence.
In the case of disproving guilt, the suspect is literally guilty until proven innocent. This legislation therefore rejects a fundamental tenet of law.
The new legislation allows police to use reasonable force to take such samples. According to Lou Schetzer from North Melbourne Legal Service, "These proposed powers effectively enshrine in legislation the right of police to sexually assault people in custody". As only 14% of police are women, a female officer is required to be present at the taking of intimate body samples and strip searches of women in custody only if practicable.
Strip search has long been known as a form of intimidation and sexual harassment by police and for some police officers (male and female) a means of sexual gratification. At South Melbourne police station, everyone taken into police custody is strip searched as a standard procedure. At present there is no requirement for such searches to be centrally documented and therefore no statistical data exists to indicate to what extent these tactics are used throughout Victorian police stations.
Police have not given a reasonable explanation as to why they need more powers. On the contrary, Donna Swan from the Federation of Community Legal Centres reports, "In the past decade expenditure by Victorians on their police force has increased by 135.3% despite the crime rate not increasing since 1987-8". There is no statistical evidence to support the police push for more power.
The community knows that the police have an unwritten record of violence, sexual abuse and misuse of power. The new police powers mean further harassment and abuse of Aborigines, women, young people, sex workers, gay people, homeless and poor — anyone who does not conform to their idea of "normal, law-abiding citizens". The police, court and prison system are totally alien to the community they assume to represent.
On May 11, the people of Melbourne will rally to demand justice for atrocities committed against the public, while the police still remain unaccountable to the community and still reject accountability measures proposed by the Federation of Community Legal Centres and associated bodies.
[Stella Simmering is a member of the Coalition Against Police Violence.]