WEBVTT - This is Alice Springs: The coppers 0:00:00.240 --> 0:00:04.640 Just a warning. Today's episode discusses traumatic events and refers 0:00:04.680 --> 0:00:09.560 to deceased Aboriginal people and contains offensive language. It's also 0:00:09.640 --> 0:00:12.680 the second episode in a three part series. If you 0:00:12.760 --> 0:00:16.680 haven't yet, go listen to episode one, Children of the Intervention. 0:00:20.680 --> 0:00:23.799 You see a lot of cops here in pursuit vehicles, 0:00:23.960 --> 0:00:26.239 driving the Cage's divisional van to get in this part 0:00:26.280 --> 0:00:29.320 of the world, or checking the IDs as people line 0:00:29.400 --> 0:00:32.240 up outside the bottle shop in the town's main shopping center. 0:00:33.080 --> 0:00:35.760 It feels like they're everywhere, and the numbers back up 0:00:35.800 --> 0:00:39.159 what the eyes can see. For every one hundred thousand 0:00:39.200 --> 0:00:41.920 people in the Northern Territory, there are seven hundred and 0:00:42.000 --> 0:00:47.000 thirty cops, almost triple the national average. We spoke to 0:00:47.080 --> 0:00:50.159 Uncle Brian in the last episode, along with Damien and 0:00:50.240 --> 0:00:54.520 his eighteen year old son Bison. They represent three generations 0:00:54.560 --> 0:00:57.400 of Urunda men, all of whom have had their own 0:00:57.440 --> 0:01:01.200 experiences with the territory and police. It doesn't make you 0:01:01.240 --> 0:01:03.200 feel like when you're walking down the street and you 0:01:03.280 --> 0:01:07.120 see a police fan head towards you, it's. 0:01:07.920 --> 0:01:10.240 Like sad sort of thing. It is because you know 0:01:10.280 --> 0:01:13.600 they're looking at you, they're targeting you. Soon's the actually 0:01:13.600 --> 0:01:15.160 one black color. They're watching you. 0:01:15.480 --> 0:01:16.800 They're getting a little bit overboard. 0:01:16.880 --> 0:01:20.280 To be honest, everywhere I go in al Springs, locals 0:01:20.280 --> 0:01:23.640 tell me about interactions they've had with the cops. Not 0:01:23.760 --> 0:01:26.200 everyone wants to say it into a microphone, but the 0:01:26.240 --> 0:01:30.120 stories are similar, stories about violent cops and about not 0:01:30.240 --> 0:01:31.640 feeling safe in their own town. 0:01:32.880 --> 0:01:36.679 Yeah, you talk about murder, They've killed a lot of people. 0:01:36.720 --> 0:01:39.679 They killed a lot of people, especially our people, black people. 0:01:39.840 --> 0:01:41.960 Nothing in the orditary nobody was found guilty. 0:01:42.800 --> 0:01:45.080 Uncle Brian's talking about the fact that since the point 0:01:45.120 --> 0:01:48.160 of first contact between black and white people on this continent, 0:01:48.840 --> 0:01:51.880 thousands of Aboriginal people have died in custody and not 0:01:51.960 --> 0:01:55.080 a single law enforcement official has ever been convicted. 0:01:55.400 --> 0:01:57.560 You know, they walk around saying about gangs in the 0:01:57.600 --> 0:01:59.280 town and all this, and that, who's the gangs? 0:01:59.320 --> 0:01:59.880 We're not the gang. 0:02:00.000 --> 0:02:02.840 Who's the ones we're in a badge linked up to 0:02:02.920 --> 0:02:06.000 another association, not another badge. They're the ones with their 0:02:06.040 --> 0:02:10.920 game because they're the ones who were their uniform. 0:02:10.960 --> 0:02:14.440 The broken relationship between the police and locals isn't just 0:02:14.520 --> 0:02:18.160 conjecture on the streets of Alice Springs. It's acknowledged by 0:02:18.200 --> 0:02:21.480 the INNT Police Commissioner, who earlier this year apologized to 0:02:21.520 --> 0:02:25.160 Aboriginal Territorians for the harm caused by his organization. 0:02:26.720 --> 0:02:30.440 So today, as the Police Commissioner of the Northern Territory, 0:02:31.160 --> 0:02:38.799 I unagreeably say sorry Aratorians in the past, Hans and 0:02:38.919 --> 0:02:43.240 the injustices paused or members of the Northern Territory Police. 0:02:44.680 --> 0:02:46.920 I want to understand how things got to this point, 0:02:47.400 --> 0:02:50.600 whether it's possible to mend all the broken pieces splintering 0:02:50.600 --> 0:02:54.400 the community here. To begin to find meaning, I'd need 0:02:54.400 --> 0:02:57.400 to speak to the police themselves and the arrunder woman 0:02:57.520 --> 0:03:00.600 tasked with changing the culture within the force and trying 0:03:00.639 --> 0:03:04.560 to rebuild the relationship between her organization and her people. 0:03:09.680 --> 0:03:13.519 I'm Daniel James from Schwartz Media and seven AM. This 0:03:13.720 --> 0:03:33.160 is Ela Springs, Episode two. The Coppers. There's one story 0:03:33.160 --> 0:03:35.640 that sums up where things stand between the cops and 0:03:35.720 --> 0:03:40.200 the community. Here is twenty twenty two. Police officer Zachary 0:03:40.280 --> 0:03:42.320 Rolf has just been acquitted for the murder of a 0:03:42.400 --> 0:03:46.440 nineteen year old wolpery Man com and Jie Walker. There 0:03:46.440 --> 0:03:49.800 were no Indigenous people on the jury. It was overwhelmingly white. 0:03:50.600 --> 0:03:53.080 His family had waited years for a verdict, and when 0:03:53.080 --> 0:03:55.480 it finally came, they were left reeling. 0:03:56.400 --> 0:04:01.480 Today is not a very really a happy day for us. 0:04:02.680 --> 0:04:04.600 It's another sad day. 0:04:05.240 --> 0:04:07.960 Standing on the steps of the Supreme Court in Alice Springs, 0:04:08.440 --> 0:04:13.240 their palpable grief, their anger, and the deep despair showed 0:04:13.280 --> 0:04:15.760 the chasm that had grown between the police and the 0:04:15.800 --> 0:04:21.159 Aboriginal community. This is Senior Wolprialda ned Jump, a jimp 0:04:21.160 --> 0:04:21.880 of hard graves. 0:04:22.160 --> 0:04:32.159 I just say, when we are going to get justice, 0:04:34.160 --> 0:04:41.080 when no guns in the row remote community. 0:04:42.240 --> 0:04:53.679 W I want no guns. Enough is enough, It's gotta stop. 0:04:55.760 --> 0:04:58.919 When he killed Kim and Jie Walker, Zachary Roll fired 0:04:58.960 --> 0:05:02.280 three shots during a tempt to arrest him. Walker was 0:05:02.320 --> 0:05:05.680 holding a pair of scissors at the time. A community 0:05:05.680 --> 0:05:09.160 officer who'd arrested Walker many times before said he'd never 0:05:09.200 --> 0:05:11.960 known him to resist arrest. He said Walker had been 0:05:12.000 --> 0:05:15.000 in town for his granddad's funeral and it was agreed 0:05:15.000 --> 0:05:18.119 that he'd hand himself in after that, but he didn't 0:05:18.120 --> 0:05:21.680 get the chance to do that. A subsequent coronial inquest 0:05:21.880 --> 0:05:24.880 into Walker's death took two years to run. Another two 0:05:25.000 --> 0:05:28.799 years in the life of Walker's family finishing earlier this year. 0:05:29.240 --> 0:05:32.479 The inquest revealed that Zachary Ralph had been involved in 0:05:32.560 --> 0:05:36.320 forty six use of force incidents in his three years 0:05:36.320 --> 0:05:40.920 in Our Springs. One of the videos from his own 0:05:40.960 --> 0:05:44.039 body cam was the arrest of a fourteen year old. 0:05:44.920 --> 0:05:47.680 The kid jumps in a wheelie bin, Ralph kicks the 0:05:47.720 --> 0:05:57.760 bin over while with child's inside. An internal investigation found 0:05:57.760 --> 0:06:01.440 his use of force was not excessive, but during the inquest, 0:06:01.640 --> 0:06:05.360 Rolf gave Frank a wide ranging testimony on the culture 0:06:05.400 --> 0:06:09.080 within the Northern Territory Police Force. The testimony would reveal 0:06:09.160 --> 0:06:12.479 what many had assumed for a long time, a culture 0:06:12.520 --> 0:06:15.480 of widespread racism exists within the force. 0:06:16.160 --> 0:06:20.320 A series of explosive text messages downloaded from Constable Zachary 0:06:20.440 --> 0:06:24.040 Rolf's phone following his arrest in twenty nineteen have been 0:06:24.080 --> 0:06:28.320 read aloud to the court the current sergeant in charge. 0:06:28.400 --> 0:06:31.440 Revelations with Nowhere to Hide in the form of testimony 0:06:31.520 --> 0:06:35.320 and texts from police officers presented to the inquest for 0:06:35.400 --> 0:06:36.480 all the world to see. 0:06:36.960 --> 0:06:40.159 An unnamed officer texted Rolf saying, who'd you had a 0:06:40.240 --> 0:06:41.440 rough arvo yesterday? 0:06:41.720 --> 0:06:42.120 Grubby? 0:06:42.760 --> 0:06:47.320 Constable Rolf replying referring to Indigenous people as in another 0:06:47.360 --> 0:06:47.839 message to. 0:06:51.520 --> 0:06:55.840 The level of racism was palpable because there was the 0:06:55.880 --> 0:06:58.920 text messages shared between the police officers that were involved 0:06:58.920 --> 0:07:01.679 in the operation and. 0:07:01.520 --> 0:07:04.600 John Lawrence sc is the former president of the NT 0:07:04.839 --> 0:07:08.640 Bar Association. He touched down in the territory via Melbourne 0:07:08.680 --> 0:07:11.960 from Edinburgh in the eighties at the same time the 0:07:12.000 --> 0:07:15.160 Royal Commission into Death and Custody was happening, and for 0:07:15.240 --> 0:07:19.000 nearly four decades he's represented Aboriginal people in the NT 0:07:19.320 --> 0:07:24.080 justice system. Even after all that time, witnessing Territory police 0:07:24.160 --> 0:07:27.320 up close, that inquest was still shocking. 0:07:27.600 --> 0:07:30.960 The films and then a coming out at the same inquest, 0:07:31.120 --> 0:07:34.920 we discovered that the same group had these annual Christmas 0:07:34.920 --> 0:07:40.720 dinners where they gave our awards which were horrendously blatantly 0:07:41.520 --> 0:07:46.280 Alabama Sdale recis with Coon of the Year award and 0:07:46.320 --> 0:07:49.720 you know, blacking up stuff, and I mean stuff that 0:07:49.960 --> 0:07:53.640 you know, honestly, I didn't think that we had descended 0:07:53.680 --> 0:07:54.280 to that level. 0:07:55.800 --> 0:07:57.640 John takes the long view when he says that the 0:07:57.640 --> 0:08:01.720 fractual relationship between the police and original communities has always 0:08:01.720 --> 0:08:05.480 been a byproduct of colonization. But things really kicking the 0:08:05.480 --> 0:08:06.640 gay during the intervention. 0:08:07.800 --> 0:08:10.160 When the intervention came in, one of the things that 0:08:10.880 --> 0:08:14.960 they spent millions on was setting up police stations in 0:08:15.040 --> 0:08:19.240 communities that previously didn't have any. Now, if you put 0:08:19.240 --> 0:08:23.720 a police station anywhere which was previously apparently crime free, 0:08:24.120 --> 0:08:26.200 you're going to end up within six months with a 0:08:26.200 --> 0:08:29.600 lot of people arrested in chats with criminal offenses. I mean, 0:08:29.640 --> 0:08:32.600 I've joked that if I was an Aboriginal person in 0:08:32.640 --> 0:08:35.559 twenty twenty four, I wouldn't even walk past the courthouse 0:08:36.120 --> 0:08:39.760 because there's some kind of hoovering vacuum mechanism that could 0:08:39.840 --> 0:08:42.600 suck you in the front door, put you in a dock, 0:08:43.240 --> 0:08:45.960 and then put you down into the sales below, and 0:08:46.000 --> 0:08:48.320 you're in the black Maria van and off to jail 0:08:48.520 --> 0:08:53.880 you go. It's just that's how effective efficient our system 0:08:53.920 --> 0:08:56.480 has become. It's crazy shit. 0:08:57.640 --> 0:09:00.520 Let's talk about the nuts and bolts of a little bit. 0:09:00.840 --> 0:09:03.800 What happens when a kid is arrested. 0:09:03.840 --> 0:09:07.200 What happens percedurally, what happens to Aboriginal kids is that 0:09:07.440 --> 0:09:09.760 they get taken the court and they will be let's 0:09:09.760 --> 0:09:13.720 say tried. Now, what they are entitled to like you 0:09:13.800 --> 0:09:17.800 and I is due process, which includes, as your bastions, 0:09:17.840 --> 0:09:21.199 the presumption of innocence, the honest of proof being on 0:09:21.400 --> 0:09:24.559 the state, which is beyond reasonable doubt, and it has 0:09:24.600 --> 0:09:27.760 to be based on real admissible evidence. Now, these are 0:09:27.800 --> 0:09:32.840 the standard protections and safeguards that our system has in 0:09:32.960 --> 0:09:37.920 order to prevent injustice and wrongful convictions, but none of 0:09:37.960 --> 0:09:40.600 them really have any application. If you're a seventeen year 0:09:40.600 --> 0:09:45.480 old Aboriginal kid who's up for breaking entry or stealing cars, 0:09:45.880 --> 0:09:49.000 you're just whisked through a system at one hundred mile 0:09:49.040 --> 0:09:49.440 an hour. 0:09:50.600 --> 0:09:54.400 Kids are represented by crumbling legal aid services stretched beyond 0:09:54.440 --> 0:09:58.160 their limits, bill restrictions, plystone kids aren't met because they 0:09:58.200 --> 0:10:00.920 can't be met, and so an seventy percent of kids 0:10:00.960 --> 0:10:05.120 who are in detention are on remand presumed innocent under 0:10:05.120 --> 0:10:08.720 the law, but locked up nonetheless, and they end up 0:10:08.720 --> 0:10:09.840 in places locked Dondale. 0:10:11.640 --> 0:10:14.800 This is the vision that has sent shockwaves around the world. 0:10:15.120 --> 0:10:18.120 This was not filmed in Gontanamo Bay or North Korea. 0:10:18.320 --> 0:10:21.720 This was filmed in the Northern Territory, in our own country. 0:10:22.240 --> 0:10:25.720 The events at the Dondale Center that were set out 0:10:25.920 --> 0:10:29.960 on four corners shocked and appalled Australians and we are 0:10:30.000 --> 0:10:32.360 dealing with it with a Royal commission. 0:10:34.120 --> 0:10:37.640 Dondale used detention center, the one Malcolm Turmble would eventually 0:10:37.720 --> 0:10:40.839 establish a Royal Commission over, was built in ninety one 0:10:41.440 --> 0:10:44.080 specifically to lock up kids between the ages of ten 0:10:44.240 --> 0:10:48.280 and seventeen. Some sentence to serve time there, others held 0:10:48.320 --> 0:10:52.080 their own romand the facility is in Darwin, but kids 0:10:52.080 --> 0:10:55.280 from all springs are often shipped there, fifteen hours up 0:10:55.320 --> 0:10:59.000 the road away from home, their families and all they know. 0:11:00.080 --> 0:11:02.760 Most are Aboriginal. In fact, nearly eighty two percent of 0:11:02.800 --> 0:11:06.440 inmates in NTA prison are Aboriginal, even though they only 0:11:06.440 --> 0:11:10.840 make up thirty percent of the NTI population. At times 0:11:11.000 --> 0:11:14.640 one hundred percent of all youth incarcerated here have been Aboriginal. 0:11:16.120 --> 0:11:18.280 John remembers the first time a case of a kid 0:11:18.320 --> 0:11:21.120 at don Dale was handed to him. All his years 0:11:21.120 --> 0:11:24.040 of experience couldn't prepare him for what he saw happening there. 0:11:24.760 --> 0:11:27.479 No sooner at I first discovered it than they realized 0:11:28.160 --> 0:11:31.360 that this had been going on for years and it 0:11:31.400 --> 0:11:34.240 was still going on, and it was like a bile 0:11:34.360 --> 0:11:37.240 that needed to be busted, that stuff for stuff that 0:11:37.360 --> 0:11:41.959 was going on in Dindale, which was explored by full Corners, 0:11:42.640 --> 0:11:49.120 was tortured and abuse, solitary confinement, assault, psychological batterings, all 0:11:49.160 --> 0:11:50.800 of that none more. 0:11:51.160 --> 0:11:53.080 What does that do to kids saved? There's a kid 0:11:53.120 --> 0:11:54.559 that's been on don Dale and they earn that back 0:11:54.559 --> 0:11:57.440 on the streets of somewhere like Alice Springs, what do 0:11:57.520 --> 0:11:59.760 they go back as worse? 0:12:00.120 --> 0:12:05.760 Their trauma and their injuries and damage are campaigned, So 0:12:05.840 --> 0:12:09.240 they come out more injured than they went in, and 0:12:09.360 --> 0:12:12.319 they haven't been rehabilitated in any each yeap or form, 0:12:13.000 --> 0:12:15.920 So they just go back to where they came from 0:12:16.000 --> 0:12:20.360 and the sacle goes on. It's this sacle of perpetuation, 0:12:21.240 --> 0:12:25.000 which is really what the legal situation here is. 0:12:27.480 --> 0:12:30.520 Kids are made worse by a failing justice system. Some 0:12:30.600 --> 0:12:32.960 kids bend to its will, others are broken by it. 0:12:33.840 --> 0:12:36.320 If they do come out the other side, often the 0:12:36.320 --> 0:12:38.880 cycle they're in is all they've known and all they 0:12:38.920 --> 0:12:42.920 will know. That cycle starts and ends with the Coppers, 0:12:43.600 --> 0:12:45.880 a cycle that extends through its one hundred and fifty 0:12:45.880 --> 0:12:49.880 four year history, which leads to the police Commissioner rising 0:12:49.920 --> 0:12:52.239 to his feet at Gama to make this apology. 0:12:53.040 --> 0:12:55.480 I know that I cannot change or I'm the past 0:12:56.480 --> 0:13:00.280 and as the police emissioner alongside with our police officers, yeah, 0:13:00.840 --> 0:13:04.600 we can commit to not repeat mistakes and the injustices. 0:13:04.240 --> 0:13:04.960 Of the past. 0:13:06.600 --> 0:13:09.520 All the territory police need to be accountable for the 0:13:09.559 --> 0:13:11.600 past treatment of Aboriginal people. 0:13:13.080 --> 0:13:16.240 Standing next to the Commissioner was ar under woman Leanne Little. 0:13:17.280 --> 0:13:19.079 This is the coupe who's been given the job of 0:13:19.200 --> 0:13:22.840 mending the relationship between the police and her people, the 0:13:22.880 --> 0:13:25.559 woman who has to take the apology and make it count. 0:13:26.480 --> 0:13:27.280 So what's their plan? 0:13:28.840 --> 0:13:55.800 Yeah, okay, that's after the break. 0:13:56.559 --> 0:14:01.040 So it's marine about quarters await U in the morning 0:14:01.280 --> 0:14:06.800 and we are on our way to the well the 0:14:06.800 --> 0:14:09.720 police headquarter is here in Alice Springs to speak to 0:14:11.080 --> 0:14:14.400 Leanne Little, and we're speaking to her at a time 0:14:14.679 --> 0:14:18.360 when the Chief Commissioner has just made an apology to 0:14:18.640 --> 0:14:23.920 the Aboriginal people of the Northern Territory and she has 0:14:23.960 --> 0:14:27.680 now been charged with basically changing the culture of the 0:14:27.800 --> 0:14:34.560 force to address things like systemic racism, interpersonal racism, racial profiling. 0:14:35.600 --> 0:14:37.480 I think, without a shadow of a doubt you could 0:14:37.520 --> 0:14:41.360 easily say it's the most difficult and challenging job within 0:14:41.920 --> 0:14:46.600 the force. Itself, and the relations between the Aboriginal community 0:14:46.640 --> 0:14:49.960 here and anti police are probably at an all time light. 0:14:51.920 --> 0:14:55.120 Alice Springs Police station looks like a typical municipal building 0:14:55.160 --> 0:14:59.160 from the eighties, non threatening but imposing in a town 0:14:59.200 --> 0:15:03.040 of his size. It's only once you're inside it feels 0:15:03.040 --> 0:15:07.560 like a cop shop. Protective glass shielding the front counter, 0:15:08.280 --> 0:15:11.760 interview rooms to the left, a limited access to anywhere 0:15:11.760 --> 0:15:14.680 beyond that. As we wait to be shown to a 0:15:14.800 --> 0:15:18.480 room to record the interview, Leanne arrives and signs in. 0:15:19.080 --> 0:15:20.240 Daniel. 0:15:22.880 --> 0:15:25.040 I noticed she takes time to speak to the constable 0:15:25.080 --> 0:15:28.760 behind the glass, an Aboriginal man. She gives him her 0:15:28.800 --> 0:15:32.200 contact details and tells him to stay in touch. We're 0:15:32.240 --> 0:15:34.160 shown into a small office somewhere in the heart of 0:15:34.200 --> 0:15:38.640 the building. Okay, we're ready to roll. First of all, Leanna, 0:15:38.640 --> 0:15:41.520 thank you very much for your time. Know how busy 0:15:41.560 --> 0:15:46.240 you are as we sit here now in twenty twenty four, 0:15:46.520 --> 0:15:49.120 just at the start of your journey in this role. 0:15:49.440 --> 0:15:51.680 Would you say that the Northern Territory Police is a 0:15:51.760 --> 0:15:52.640 racist institution. 0:15:53.760 --> 0:16:00.600 No, I see some individuals that have been racist, and 0:16:00.920 --> 0:16:03.520 I see a lot of good officers that need more 0:16:03.560 --> 0:16:04.160 good officers. 0:16:04.200 --> 0:16:05.600 Around them, and. 0:16:05.520 --> 0:16:11.960 I see a system where those good officers need tools 0:16:12.040 --> 0:16:15.720 to be able to make sure that those people who 0:16:15.800 --> 0:16:19.800 have behaviors because usually with the racism, people are sexist 0:16:19.840 --> 0:16:24.520 as well, people are homophobic, So it's a combination of attitudes, 0:16:25.200 --> 0:16:29.480 not just one alone. So you know, it needs to 0:16:29.480 --> 0:16:31.480 be everything that needs to be tackled. 0:16:32.200 --> 0:16:35.640 So do you think that the original community of Alice 0:16:35.680 --> 0:16:38.200 Springs trust the police as we sit here at the. 0:16:38.120 --> 0:16:40.760 Moment, I think there's a lot of work to be done. 0:16:41.160 --> 0:16:44.800 I think there's a lot of tangible outcomes that need 0:16:44.840 --> 0:16:48.840 to be seen on the ground before people regain that 0:16:49.000 --> 0:16:54.040 trust in police. People should feel that when they call 0:16:54.120 --> 0:16:57.040 for police, and when police attend as an offender or 0:16:57.040 --> 0:17:00.000 a victim, that they're getting the service that theyase. 0:17:02.040 --> 0:17:05.200 Leanne was born and raised in Alice Springs. Her dadd 0:17:05.280 --> 0:17:09.680 was a construction worker, her mum a school counselor. It 0:17:09.840 --> 0:17:13.240 was a safe upbringing with food on the table. Her 0:17:13.280 --> 0:17:16.399 parents often took kids in. Leanne was told not to 0:17:16.440 --> 0:17:20.200 ask questions, just to make them feel welcome. It's something 0:17:20.200 --> 0:17:22.600 that used to happen a lot when there was no 0:17:22.680 --> 0:17:24.919 wrong door for a kid to walk through if they 0:17:24.960 --> 0:17:30.119 needed to get help from within their own community. So 0:17:30.240 --> 0:17:34.719 what was some of your first interactions with the police 0:17:34.920 --> 0:17:36.000 in Alice Springs? 0:17:36.680 --> 0:17:40.080 It was assistant commissioner was His name was sass Grant 0:17:41.080 --> 0:17:47.959 and he was my athletics coach and amazing man. And 0:17:48.000 --> 0:17:51.000 I actually didn't realize he was assistant commissioner until I 0:17:51.040 --> 0:17:53.760 was in my teenage years, because I think I would 0:17:53.760 --> 0:17:55.600 have run faster if I knew it was a placement. 0:17:57.000 --> 0:17:57.760 What was your event? 0:17:58.680 --> 0:18:00.280 I was a sprinter, sprint. 0:18:00.400 --> 0:18:02.720 And he always used to say to me that he 0:18:02.760 --> 0:18:05.760 thought I could make it to the Olympics and if 0:18:05.800 --> 0:18:07.960 horses and boyfriends thinking it in the way, I might 0:18:08.000 --> 0:18:08.480 have gone there. 0:18:09.920 --> 0:18:12.440 The way things used to be has clearly informed how 0:18:12.480 --> 0:18:15.840 she's trying to address the issues confronting her people. As 0:18:15.880 --> 0:18:18.119 a young woman, she wanted to join the police force 0:18:18.480 --> 0:18:21.320 to instigate change, to run towards it. 0:18:21.920 --> 0:18:25.240 My parents wouldn't let me join the Order Archi police force, ironically, 0:18:25.840 --> 0:18:28.359 so that's why I saut Australia. So they said you 0:18:28.359 --> 0:18:31.400 can go to the border. You know nobody there, off 0:18:31.480 --> 0:18:33.440 you go. And they thought, because. 0:18:33.160 --> 0:18:34.480 You don't want to be you don't want to be 0:18:34.560 --> 0:18:37.560 arresting family members and causing trouble for your. 0:18:37.400 --> 0:18:40.160 Mob, and they at that time said the non changed 0:18:40.200 --> 0:18:43.760 police forces racist and they didn't want me to experience that, 0:18:44.640 --> 0:18:47.320 so off I went. I hadn't ever seen the traffic 0:18:47.400 --> 0:18:51.040 light before, let alone around about, so things are very 0:18:51.040 --> 0:18:52.639 different for me down there. 0:18:52.880 --> 0:18:53.840 It was very lonely. 0:18:56.000 --> 0:18:58.600 There's a photo over there from that time, leaning on 0:18:58.640 --> 0:19:02.200 a police car with the Adelaide skyline behind her. She's 0:19:02.240 --> 0:19:06.399 proudly wearing a police uniform, blue skirt, blue jumper and 0:19:06.440 --> 0:19:09.680 a big smile on her face. But being a black 0:19:09.680 --> 0:19:12.560 copper was never going to be easy. The picture doesn't 0:19:12.600 --> 0:19:14.720 come close to portraying the reality of what she was 0:19:14.720 --> 0:19:18.960 experiencing and what was ahead. Why did you decide to leave? 0:19:20.320 --> 0:19:26.360 I get injured on duty, had a terrible accident and 0:19:27.320 --> 0:19:30.679 ended up sort of having to re evaluate my life, 0:19:31.000 --> 0:19:32.440 and then at that same time. 0:19:34.560 --> 0:19:37.240 Outlined to the lawyer at the times. 0:19:37.080 --> 0:19:40.040 And missions of racism in the police force, and from 0:19:40.080 --> 0:19:43.159 there it sort of snowballed into a Human Rights and 0:19:43.200 --> 0:19:48.240 Echo Opportunity Commission court matter and it ended in an 0:19:48.280 --> 0:19:49.840 out of court settlement. 0:19:54.480 --> 0:19:56.959 In the late nineties. Leanne Little left and retrained as 0:19:56.960 --> 0:20:01.160 a lawyer. In the twenty ten, working with the Attorney 0:20:01.200 --> 0:20:05.000 General to establish the Aboriginal Justice Unit. It was a 0:20:05.040 --> 0:20:07.000 job that took her all across the NT. 0:20:09.359 --> 0:20:14.440 So we're here at un blood Watch, hid by invitation 0:20:14.760 --> 0:20:16.680 from the Central Man Council. 0:20:17.480 --> 0:20:20.320 Her goal was to end the over policing and overincarceration 0:20:20.400 --> 0:20:24.080 of Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory. But in late 0:20:24.119 --> 0:20:26.920 twenty nineteen, while Leanne was putting the finishing touches on 0:20:26.960 --> 0:20:37.720 the Aboriginal Justice Agreement, kimen Ji Walker was killed. Like 0:20:37.840 --> 0:20:42.639 much of Australia, Leanne watched the inquest unfold. When she 0:20:42.720 --> 0:20:45.680 saw the racist text messages that it dredged up the 0:20:45.760 --> 0:20:49.240 deeply racist awards ceremony run by the elite Tactical Unit, 0:20:49.640 --> 0:20:52.760 she was incensed and she couldn't let it slide. 0:20:55.920 --> 0:20:58.120 I rang the Police Commissioner and told him exactly how 0:20:58.160 --> 0:21:05.159 I felt a little bit surprised. I suppose I was 0:21:05.200 --> 0:21:09.280 surprised that lots of other people didn't know what was happening. 0:21:09.320 --> 0:21:13.800 But that's how racism exists in the system, in small pockets, 0:21:13.840 --> 0:21:18.800 in large organizations, and they find people, you know, who 0:21:19.400 --> 0:21:23.000 think like that, who they're brave enough to say that too, 0:21:23.040 --> 0:21:28.880 and they sort of stick together. But to be perfectly honest, 0:21:29.680 --> 0:21:33.520 I was impressed by what people were saying to me 0:21:33.640 --> 0:21:37.199 next that they too, as police officers, were ashamed and 0:21:37.320 --> 0:21:42.360 embarrassed and sorry for the you know what was exposed. 0:21:43.080 --> 0:21:43.800 I think it was a. 0:21:45.400 --> 0:21:52.359 Moment of shame and embarrassment and for me, the police 0:21:52.359 --> 0:21:55.160 force needed to own that if we were to move 0:21:55.200 --> 0:21:57.959 forward in fixing what needed to be fixed. 0:21:58.440 --> 0:21:59.920 It was off the back of this call that Lee 0:22:00.160 --> 0:22:02.359 made a decision that I'm not sure many people in 0:22:02.359 --> 0:22:05.439 her position would make after her parents warned her the 0:22:05.440 --> 0:22:08.280 police were racist, after she felt pushed out of the 0:22:08.320 --> 0:22:11.080 force by her treatment as the first Aboriginal police officer. 0:22:11.720 --> 0:22:14.520 After watching the inquest and seeing everything get laid bare, 0:22:15.240 --> 0:22:19.160 Leanne went back. She rejoined the police for the same 0:22:19.200 --> 0:22:21.359 reason she's ever done anything, because I. 0:22:21.400 --> 0:22:22.600 Think I can make a difference. 0:22:22.960 --> 0:22:26.720 I think that I really have the skills that can 0:22:27.320 --> 0:22:29.800 work with other people in the team to make a difference. 0:22:30.440 --> 0:22:33.639 Now, as the executive Director of the Community Resilience and 0:22:33.720 --> 0:22:38.280 Engagement Command for the Northern Territory Police Force, she's specifically 0:22:38.320 --> 0:22:41.320 tasked with tackling and rooting out racism in the force. 0:22:42.280 --> 0:22:46.199 It sounds like a big task, but at the same time, 0:22:48.359 --> 0:22:51.760 there should be no racism and a police force and 0:22:51.920 --> 0:22:55.480 people should be able to work in a professional space 0:22:56.240 --> 0:23:00.440 and be their best, and not only do non original 0:23:00.440 --> 0:23:03.160 people don't want and Aboriginal people don't want racism. 0:23:03.240 --> 0:23:06.000 So I think that's a perfect recipe for me to. 0:23:06.000 --> 0:23:09.880 Come in and create an environment and train people up 0:23:09.960 --> 0:23:13.080 and encourage people to call out racism when they see it, 0:23:13.600 --> 0:23:16.760 to have complaint mechanisms in place for people when it 0:23:16.840 --> 0:23:18.040 is raised. 0:23:18.359 --> 0:23:21.480 Leanne has the jewel task of stopping racism towards Aboriginal 0:23:21.480 --> 0:23:26.119 offices and changing the way cops police Aboriginal people. So 0:23:26.119 --> 0:23:29.080 where does she even start. She's aiming to get thirty 0:23:29.119 --> 0:23:32.119 percent Aboriginal on torrost Rattle on the people on the force. 0:23:32.960 --> 0:23:35.439 She says, the lack of lived experience and decision making 0:23:35.560 --> 0:23:38.000 at every level has led to so many of the 0:23:38.040 --> 0:23:41.600 problems here. There's also a number of other measures, like 0:23:41.720 --> 0:23:46.119 training police and cultural awareness and strengthening complaint systems so 0:23:46.280 --> 0:23:52.840 officers have somewhere to go when they see or experience racism. 0:23:53.000 --> 0:23:55.640 As Leanne runs through these measures for me, I can't 0:23:55.680 --> 0:23:57.359 help but think it's like putting a band aid on 0:23:57.400 --> 0:24:00.720 a gaping wound. She's trying to make the changes at 0:24:00.720 --> 0:24:04.400 a time when the powerful Territory Police union has said 0:24:04.400 --> 0:24:09.120 it things cops are being unfairly blamed for racism. How 0:24:09.119 --> 0:24:11.640 do you change police officers who don't want to be changed? 0:24:12.240 --> 0:24:14.720 He said, the blame shouldn't be all placed on them. 0:24:15.760 --> 0:24:18.119 It's a reminder that the most powerful person in the 0:24:18.240 --> 0:24:20.960 justice system is the cop on the beat. They're the 0:24:20.960 --> 0:24:24.080 ones that can taste pepper spray or shoot you on 0:24:24.080 --> 0:24:28.400 the spot. They are the law. Prosecutors can only prosecute, 0:24:28.720 --> 0:24:33.080 judges can only sentence. If a cop resists change, then 0:24:33.080 --> 0:24:36.240 that can be one cop too many, and to change things, 0:24:36.880 --> 0:24:38.879 Leanne is going to have to deal with every type 0:24:38.880 --> 0:24:43.280 of cop. The more we talk, the more real our 0:24:43.320 --> 0:24:46.960 conversation becomes. It feels like the enormity of the task 0:24:47.040 --> 0:24:50.240 is hitting her, and so returns to why she's persevering 0:24:51.040 --> 0:24:54.480 in spite of it all. 0:24:54.560 --> 0:24:57.400 I remember when I was a kid going to school 0:24:58.320 --> 0:25:00.439 and I was really good at sport, was a really 0:25:00.480 --> 0:25:05.000 fast runner, and I was a school captain and there 0:25:05.160 --> 0:25:11.600 was a disabled girl who had cerebral palsy and I 0:25:11.640 --> 0:25:14.280