Campaign Respect

Campaign Respect has been started up by a group of young people here at Youthlaw.

Those of us who started the campaign are sick of being treated disrespectfully by Authorised Officers (ticket inspectors) because we are young people.

Youthlaw also receives a lot of complaints from young people about their treatment by Public Transport Authorised Operators (AOs) or ticket inspectors. This ranges from disrespect and humiliation to verbal and physical abuse.

It’s a grassroots campaign using info and digital activism to mobilise young people, hear your stories and bring about cultural, social and political change in the way ticket inspectors interact with young people.

OMBUDSMAN SAYS TICKET INSPECTORS USE EXCESSIVE FORCE

Public transport ticket inspectors have used excessive force on commuters and been given their jobs without proper screening, according to the Victoria Ombudsman, George Brouwer.

CCTV footage relied on by the Ombudsman highlighted a number of examples of inappropriate authorised officer conduct and use of excessive force, especially against yougn people

As a result of a damning report tabled in State Parliament in December 2010 by the Ombudsman, the Department of Transport has accepted all but one of 14 recommendations to overhaul the ticket inspector regime.

See "Other news" for more media reports or check out the Ombudsmans full report.
Ombudsmans Report December 2010

IF YOU WANT RESPECT MODEL IT: LATEST SURVEY RESULTS

An on line survey from 2010, documenting the experiences of some 274 young people with ticket inspectors by Youthlaw’s Campaign Respect found that over 70% of young people either agreed or strongly agreed that “there is a problem with how authorised officers treat young people using public transport”.

Other relevant findings from the surveys included:

35% had personally experienced aggressive or rude language by ticket inspectors
30% had personally experienced aggressive body language
Nearly half had witnessed aggressive body language or rude language
18% had been physically handled themselves and 37% witnessed some other young person be physically handled.

Significant numbers of young people surveyed acknowledged that they had made a mistake i.e. did not validate ticket or inadvertently had feet on a seat and that the officer was obliged to report the infringement. What they often objected to was the way some officers, at times, went about their role in an impolite, aggressive and threatening way.

To check out what else the report says click here
If you want respect - model it