Bringing-Them-Home-Report-Web

approaches to the policing of Indigenous young people. Cunneen and McDonald (1997page 170) have discussed how the local laws that cover Southbank Parklands in Brisbaneare being used to create an ‘Aboriginal free’ zone. They note that Aboriginal youth arebeing harassed in Southbank and the Brisbane Mall areas by being required to showidentification and provide their names. The effect has been to drive Indigenous youngpeople away from the areas. In December 1995 the Southbank Corporation Act wasamended to give police officers and security guards the power to stop people, ask fortheir name and address and request them to leave the area for 24 hours if they areregarded as causing a nuisance. There are also bans available for up to 10 days if theperson disobeys a direction (Murray 1996).There have been real inequities on the part of local governments in the standards ofservice provision and infrastructure between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal communities(ALSWA submission 127 page 204). Failure to provide services for young people andfamilies is likely to increase the risk of intervention by regulatory agencies of welfare andjuvenile justice.The police power to ask a young person for his or her name and address is also usedinappropriately. The Inquiry was told that section 50 of the Police Act 1892 (WA) whichprovides police with this power in WA is abused and should be repealed (ALSWAsubmission 127 page 367). Certainly, many Indigenous young people believe that theyare stopped and questioned by police without adequate reason (Howard 1996). In SouthAustralia police harassment of Indigenous young people was raised in communitymeetings with the Inquiry (evidence 308 page 1). The inquiry on children and the legalprocess being conducted jointly by the Human Rights and Equal OpportunityCommission and the Australian Law Reform Commission has been told of hundreds ofyoung people having their names and addresses taken by police on typical weekends inQueensland and WA. That inquiry will report further on this issue.Police discretionsWhen a young person is suspected of committing an offence, a police officer has arange of options available on how to proceed. These include a warning and no furtheraction, a formal caution, and charging the young person by either issuing a summons 4 toappear in court on a certain date or by arresting the young person, conveying him or herto a police station, charging with an offence and determining bail.The officer has a common law discretion to warn the young person and take nofurther action, except perhaps to record the details of the suspected offence and offenderin his or her notebook. These informal warnings are sometimes referred to as ‘warnings’,‘informal cautions’ or ‘cautions on the run’ and are different from a formal policecaution.All Australian States and Territories have some form of official police cautioningsystem. In some States (SA, WA and Queensland) police cautioning is provided for inlegislation. In other States such as NSW, cautioning is regulated by police guidelines. InTasmania the use of police cautions has been piloted and will be provided for in the new