Respond to community concerns raised by Elders about night patrols

What is going on

At a yarning circle at the Wurundjeri Way Aboriginal Community Hub, Elders raised concerns that night patrols have been stopping and questioning young people near the hub in a way that feels targeted. The concern has been recorded in the Community Engagement Register and referred to the Operations Inspector. The Aboriginal Community Liaison Officer has asked you to work with her on a considered response. There are four relevant incident records from the past month, all recorded as public order matters near the hub, and the night shift has not received any cultural protocol briefing this year. The hub coordinator has agreed to meet.

Your brief

Develop a liaison plan that responds respectfully to the Elders' concerns, reviews the relevant incident records, prepares cultural protocol advice for the night shift, and sets a way to report back to the community with agreed follow-ups.

Work through it

You do not need to do it all. Doing a few of these will show you what the work is like. Your ticks and notes stay on this device.

• Read the Community Engagement and Liaison Policy and the Code of Conduct and Professional Standards Policy and identify the obligations that apply to engagement with a culturally specific community and to complaints about police conduct.
• Review the Community Engagement Register record for the yarning circle and the four public order incident records near the hub in the Incident Log, and summarise what the records show and what they do not.
• Prepare for and document a meeting with the hub coordinator, listing the questions you will ask, the cultural protocols you will observe and what you can and cannot commit to.
• Draft a one page cultural protocol briefing for the night shift covering respectful communication, the role of the liaison officers and when to call them, and the recording of interactions.
• Write the liaison plan with objectives, actions, owners and dates, including a report back to the Elders within thirty days.
• Create a new Community Engagement Register record for the report back meeting with status Planned and record the follow-ups from the yarning circle against named members.
• Explain how any complaint about a specific member arising from the meeting would be handled under the Code of Conduct, and how you would protect the confidentiality of the person raising it.

What someone in this role would produce

• Summary of the incident records and engagement record
• Meeting preparation notes and record of the meeting
• Cultural protocol briefing for the night shift
• Liaison plan with actions, owners and dates
• Community Engagement Register record for the report back