The Victorian Law Reform Commission ("the Commission") reviewing the role of independent persons for young people in police interviews. The law currently requires that an adult be present during formal police questioning of a young person under 18 years of age. When a parent or guardian is unavailable, an adult ‘Independent Person’ (IP) is required to be in attendance (section 464E Crimes Act 1958). An IP is usually a volunteer member of community. The Youth Referral and Independent Person Program (YRIPP) trains and supports people working as IPs across Victoria.
Youthlaw was asked by the Commission to assist them to engage young people in the consultation process and to ensure their experiences and voices are heard in relation to police interviews and the role of the independent persons (“IPs”).
Over July and August Youthlaw ran consultations with 2 groups of young people (20 young people in total) with experiences of police questioning and or interviews. Additionally Youthlaw lawyers interviewed 10 young people they have worked with who have experiences of police interviews. Youthlaw's submission to the COmmission is based on what young people contributed in the two consultations and surveys.
Here is a little of what they told us:
What should be the role of an independent person?
Most participants agreed they weren’t really clear what their rights were before they went into their interviews. Young people completing the survey made general comments that they felt nervous, intimidated, pressured, tricked, confused, stressed when they had to answer questions from police in interview.
All survey respondents indicated they wanted information about their right to remain silent and support in interview if they didn’t want to answer questions to police.
Many young people expressed keenness for IP’s to actively support them to exercise and assert these rights before, during and after interview. For example:
- All survey respondents indicated they wanted support and advice from IP especially when police wanted to fingerprint or photograph them, with a few commenting they didn’t know they could refuse a photograph.
- Intervene and have a role when they can ask to stop the interview.
- Remind them of the right to silence, or need for legal advice.
In relation to incidents of police misconduct, many participants agreed that they expected volunteers to help them to make a complaint, back them up as a witness and verify what happened, perhaps make a ‘joint complaint’.
Most young people consulted thought IPs should do more than explain their legal rights, namely by providing emotional and referral support.
The spoke about how important it is to have someone with them who can help them assert their rights and provide siome welfare and emotional support: some told us how their parents can provide this support, but others told us how they can't...
And so Youthlaw supports legislative amendments that would require the presence of a trained independent person at every police interview with young people under 18 years.
If you would like to check out the full submission....
In July Youthlaw, in partnership with the Victorian Law Reform Commission and YACVic, consulted with 20 young people about surveillance in public places. What they said will inform the Commission’s final report.
21 young people turned up at Frontyard youth services last month to tell the Victoria Law Reform Commission what they think about surveillance such as CCTV and mobile phone tracking. A lot of young people acknowledged there are pros and cons of having public surveillance. For some people CCTV makes you feel safer on the streets, for others they thought it only captures what happened byt doesn't prevent it. Most didn't think it would stop violence. CCTV can be useful to prove abuse of power by authorities like tickets inspectors or police, but some young people gave examples of where they asked for the footage so they could prove to the police they hadn't done something and were refused. . Many asked who watches and who has access to the info and footage?
If you would like to read the notes from the consultation...
During the national consultation on human rights,Youthlaw spoke to over 30 workers supporting young people in Braybrook (western metropolitan), Seymour and Shepparton (north-east rural Victoria), and over 100 young people between the ages of 12 and 25 years (just over half being female) about what rights are important to young people, how well these rights are being protected and how can the federal government better protect these rights.
1.Which human rights should be protected and promoted in Australia?
While stressing the importance of protecting all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural, the submission focused on a number of child specific rights that are of particular importance to children and young people. The importance of these rights will be discussed in detail.
2.Are these human rights protected enough in Australia?
In our experience there are a number of significant gaps in the protection currently afforded to human rights of young people. The submission relies on examples, case studies and comments from young people to highlight the deficiencies in the current system of rights protection. There is emphasis on the failure to treat children and young people equally in law and practice. We highlight commonplace forms of discrimination experienced by a range of marginalised young people. We also give examples of laws, policies and procedures that discriminate against young people on the basis of their age and status as young people.
3.How Australia could better protect human rights?
To better protect young people’s human rights Youthlaw submits the federal government introduce a Human Rights Act which protects and promotes all civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights human rights, and specific children’s rights contained in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (“CROC”).
To support this recommendation we highlight the positive impact the Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities (“the Charter”) is having in facilitating better outcomes for young people in Victoria.
A Human Rights Act should provide for a freestanding, independent cause of action for breaches of rights which is accessible and appropriate to all in the community, including children and young people.
To assist with the protection and enforcement of young people rights we call for the establishment of independent national Commissioner for Children and Young People.
We also recommend a number of complementary initiatives that will be necessary to ensure the effectiveness of such a Human Rights Act, including
a. Public education campaigns on human rights
b. Human rights education embedded in school curriculum
c. Human rights training for government agencies and public authorities
d. Mechanism to promote youth participation in legal and government processes
e. A national child rights policy framework with adequate budgetary allocations that enable the effective implementation of the rights of children and young people.
If you would like to read more click here to see our full submission...
A forum called Graffiti Laws: One Year was held in April to monitor the implementation of the Graffiti Prevention Act one year since its introduction. The forum promoted a sharing a range of perspectives and anecdotal feedback, stories and experiences from young people, police, local councils, artists, community lawyers and youth workers about how the laws are playing out on the street.
In the lead up to the forum Youthlaw held a few informal focus groups sessions with young people engaged in street art/graffiti programs in City of Yarra, Banyule City Council and Artful Dodger Studios, Jesuit Social Services to find out how the law was impacting on them.
Some key findings included:
- The offences under the Act are not being enforced at a high rate. Police are mainly using their question and search powers in and around public transport and are often issuing cautions, and confiscating graffiti items from young people, rather than issuing on-the-spot fines.
- the law discriminates against young people and perpetuates negative stereotypes of young people.
- it is unclear whether the law is reducing the incidence of graffiti,however it is suggested it is resulting in more rushed jobs and tagging.
- there is evidence that legal graffiti programs reduce the incidence of unwanted graffiti and tagging.
- legal graffiti is often difficult for young people to engage in due to complex permit systems for LGAs. Young people often get in trouble when they think they are doing the right thing and obtaining the owner’s permission to graffiti.
- The serious limitations on various human rights of young people is disproportionate to the aim of the legislation to reduce incidence of graffiti.
The report makes a number of recommendations.
If you would like to read the full report click on the link below
On the 26th February 2007 Youthlaw and the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission (VEOHRC) held a one-day human rights youth forum. 70 young people attended.
Youth Human Rights Forum report [3.14Mb PDF]
Two young people came with us to present at the Adolescent Health Conference in melbourne in November 2008. Our presentation was on yiung people as victims of crime.
This is what the young people said:
Jonathon:
Hi My name is Jonathon and I’m going to be talking about barriers and stereotypes:
Barriers
- For young people, especially homeless young people one of the main barriers to reporting crime as a victim is if you have a criminal conviction.
- If you have a criminal conviction you might feel that you are treated badly by the police because of the previous conviction.
- Also there is the attitude of some police that if a crime has been committed and you are a young person then you deserve it. Or that if you do try and report a theft that the items you are reporting are already stolen.
Drug users, homeless young people, young people with past convictions.
Amy:
Hi my name is Amy. I am going to be talking about sexual assault concentrating on young women aged between 13-25 years of age.
- Most of the time young women don’t expect to go out and end up being sexually assaulted. Young women in this age group like to go out and have fun and drink, dance and not expect to have to deal with being a victim of crime.
- Being a young woman can be scary at times. Having to do something or being forced to do something you are not comfortable with or in control of is an unpleasant experience.
- Many young women are scared to report things to the police because we feel intimidated and at times that the police won’t believe us anyway.
- Being a woman its so hard to explain all the details knowing that it is going to haunt us for the rest of our lives and we lose faith in the process as often even if the police do believe us often the offender only gets a minimal prison term. In some cases this should be more to fit the severity of the crime.
- One of the major changes that needs to happen for young people attending a police station is how the police respond to you when you walk in the door. Often you don’t get a warm welcome like you do when you walk into a retail store. Often you feel like that the police do not care when you walk through the door.
- Often police don’t explain the process of what is going to happen or how it’s going to work.
- I would love the police to be more friendly and treat us with respect and as young adults.
- If someone walked into a police station carrying a weapon the police would try as hard as they can to remove the weapon and calm the person down. But if we walk in to report something it’s a different story and a totally different response.
Hi My name is Glen and I’m going to be talking about barriers and changes needed:
Barriers
- One of the reasons young people do not report crime is the fear of repercussions because often police are unable to charge & hold a young person or perpetrator.
- Another factor is often the person who committed the offence receives minor punishments and is still able to seek revenge on the victim. Sometimes victims are threatened, and therefore not willing to tell police.
- Also again if you already have a criminal record police sometimes think you provoked being attacked because of your own criminal history.
- Tougher penalties for violent and serious crimes
- Police not judging young people
- Police need to take information seriously & assist young people to report crime.
- When reporting crime police need to explain the process so you know what is going to happen. Police need to treat us like human beings & not another number.
- Another recommendation is that police could be a lot more friendly and more sensitive to the presenting situation.
- It would also be good if police did follow up with victims of crime, especially after the event when you may have remembered more information.
In February 2009 we talked to young people in focus groups, on the streets and through a survey about the Council wanting to introduce move on powers.
They told us:
- feel unsafe and fearful in in Frankston City particularly late at night
- drugs (using and selling) and grog contributes to violence on public streets
- lack of police presence on the streets
- attitude of police to young people, eg. disrespectful to young people
- Frankston train station (and opposite the train station)
- Bayside Shopping Centre
- Shannon Mall
- Bus stops – particularly at night
- The beach
- Alleyways
- Outside venues, pubs
- All of Frankston
‘There are always druggies and drunk people out front of the train station.’
‘Drunk men hanging outside the Irish pub are sleazy when you walk past.’
The majority of young people in the focus groups did not think that move on powers would be useful or effective. In regard to the young people surveyed, whilst 50% thought move-on powers ‘might help’, 48% thought persons engaging in this behaviour would move and do it elsewhere. 56% thought there were other ways to deal with these behaviours. About a third of those surveyed were undecided.
Young people in the focus groups were generally not convinced move on powers would help or change anything and were concerned about unintended impacts:
‘Other people around will feel more safe in the 24 hours they’re not there, but it won’t help in the long run.’
‘Kicking people out might frustrate them and they might do the same thing again in protest.’
‘People just move to the next spot and do the same stuff.’
‘I think if you move them it will help for the short term, but in the long term i think that something else should be done to help but i don't know what. Maybe anger management class.’ (survey)
‘Teenagers will be targeted more than anyone else by police if they have move on powers.’
‘Police stop us (teenagers) for no reason anyway’
A young woman raised that she was concerned that those who are victims in public places might have move on powers used on them and be punished ‘for just being there’.
A young man spoke of being asked to move-on by police because he was unemployed and hanging out on a park bench with a friend during the day.
A practical barrier commented on was:
‘There is not enough of a police presence to enforce move on powers’
Young people said they were already informally moved on from public spaces, especially in shopping centres:
‘Security guards just get in your space and kick you out of the shopping centre.’
‘People are already being moved on but it doesn’t change anything, they just come back.’
When asked for their ideas to help Frankston City Council tackle these problems, young people came up with the following suggestions:
- increase police presence: need more police on the streets to make sure people feel safe – there are only ever 1 or 2 around anyway and are mostly down by the beach
- get rid of the drugs
- create safe spaces for drug users off the street
- better social programs to address these issues
- improve the attitude and understanding of police
- change the name of Frankston
- better lighting, especially in alleyways,
- smoke and alcohol free areas
- more managed public spaces such as the skate park.
- places where young people can hang out with out being harassed and get free food and drink
- supervised dance parties, graffiti walls and boxing gyms
- have different things directed at different ages –eg an old person ‘hot spot’ where they can hang out with old people or no alcohol or drugs etc in certain places where elderly people go
- supervised beach days
- leave them alone(young people) and step in when necessary
- more things to do
- recreation centres in every suburb
An opportunity presented for Youthlaw to collaborate with Victoria Police’s Youth Affairs Office to develop a youth driven workshop for the Inaugural Australasian Human Rights & Policing Conference on 9 December 2008.
The workshop sought to highlight the importance of police administrating criminal justice in a way that respects the rights of young people, provides fair & dignified treatment, and sincerely engages young people.
The conference provided a platform for young people to reflect on their experiences with police and present their ideas for how to improve relations.
Young People & Police Relations –
The good, the challenges & how to create positive changes
Looking after young people’s HUMAN RIGHTS – on the street & in the station:
– respecting the rights of young people
– providing fair & dignified treatment
– sincerely engaging young people
Listen Up!
Consulting with young people at Frontyard Youth Services…
Something’s got to change…
– inequitable access to public space
– the impact of stereotyping young people
– the misuse of police discretion
– how police engage with young people at the first point of contact
Presenting…
– Two young people who have experienced homelessness
– Arriving as a refugee – a young project worker from Centre for Multicultural Youth
– Youth Affairs - Youth Leadership Program representative
Requesting…
Victoria Police - show us your commitment to shift your communication styles from interrogative to compassionate
Suggesting…
Police should:
• not speak down to us, rather talk to us as equals
• Keep everything we tell them confidential
• Listen to both sides of a story (both old v young)
• [Not] stereotype young people
• The young women encouraged police to ensure the presence of female officers to minimise intimidation
• A more transparent complaints process
Understand our situation…
Why are we so visible on the street?
Why isn’t there enough for us to do?
• Lots of young people of refugee background live in housing estates
• A lot are used to playing & living in open spaces and as such become frustrated.
Youthlaw – YDAS working group:
Seeking Uniform Standards of Attendant Care Support in All Universities & TAFES
Youthlaw is working with a group of young people with disabilities on a campaign to improve the standards of attendant care support at Uni & TAFE
A lack of funding for & inconsistency of attendant care services to be one of the biggest barriers for them to be able to attend further education.
“[There] needs to be an appreciation of the role of the carer – once the role is seen as more valuable, services will improve” [Jess YDAS]
Meeting Monthly – deciding on strategies for ADVOCACY
The working group includes current students, recent graduates & representatives from the Disability Discrimination Legal Service & YDAS.
We’re currently creating a survey to go out state-wide to all using attendant care.
Survey Results informing Future Campaigns –– submissions, letter writing & meeting with senior decision makers.
“[we want to see] more effort from government & institutions to listen to people with disabilities” [Stuart – YDAS]
Creating opportunities to create broad networks of support & influence: institutions, disability liaison units, state & federal government.
“[They need to] work out solutions collectively with young people” [Stuart YDAS]