INTRODUCTION
5.1 Co-ordination of services and information is crucial to making effective reforms involving people with an intellectual disability. There is currently much uncertainty about who, or which department, is an appropriate contact, provider of services or source of information. Therefore, it is particularly important that procedures to allow the flow of information or co-ordination of the (always limited) resources are established within the Police Service, both internally and externally, and in association with other government departments and public and private service providers.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF A POLICE POLICY
5.2 It has been suggested that before police officers can be expected to take disability issues seriously there needs to be an official police “policy” on disabilities which can be implemented “from the top down”. The existence of a policy will affect how earnestly the issue is taken up at the training or local levels. One submission expressed concern that there was no mention of people with disabilities and their needs in the NSW Police Service’s booklet What are the Police doing?, which sets out how the Police Service has tried to meet the community’s needs.
5.3 One possible reason for the lack of a policy on intellectual disability is that the issue is not seen as large enough to warrant the diversion of scarce resources. However, the generally accepted over-representation and vulnerability in the criminal justice system of people with an intellectual disability, both as offenders and as victims, must be considered in this context. The Standing Committee Report on Juvenile Justice recommended in relation to juveniles:
That a specialist police policy unit be established within the Head Office of the New South Wales Police Service with responsibility:
- to oversight the work of Police Youth Officers in relation to practices and procedures for the policing of young people,
- for the co-ordination and development of policies and programs relating to the policing of young people,
- to determine the nature of training and development required for all police officers in relation to policing young people, and
- to monitor and evaluate procedures and practices relating to policing juveniles throughout the state.1
A similar unit could also be established for people with disabilities.
SPECIALIST UNITS OR OFFICERS
5.4 At both the policy and the operational level, a major problem appears to be the absence of any formal liaison between the police and the disability community, including carers of people with an intellectual disability, with resulting ignorance, and perhaps suspicion, on both sides. The need for more contact, to assist understanding, was referred to in the Commission’s consultations with people with an intellectual disability.2 Liaison and consultation, particularly within local communities, would assist people with an intellectual disability, not only when they find themselves being questioned in a police station but when people wish to report crimes and are unsure of who to go to or whether they will be believed. It is clear that police can also play an important coordination role between the person in the street, whether a suspect or a victim, and appropriate services, such as drug and alcohol or sexual assault counselling.
5.5 At the operational level, there already have been some individual patrol initiatives; for example, the working arrangements set up between the Ipswich local police and what was then the Intellectual Handicap Services Branch of the Queensland Department of Health. This was designed to provide procedural agreements for police and the staff of the local “Alternative Living Service”, which supports people with an intellectual disability living in the community. These procedural agreements set out their respective duties and responsibilities in the areas of, for example, missing persons, public nuisance, accidents, recording of complaints and search of premises. The working arrangement also provided for education seminars for both police and residential staff, and provided a contact officer within the police if police counselling or police mediation was required.3
Existing and proposed alternatives
Intellectual Disability Liaison Officer
5.6 The New South Wales Women’s Co-ordination Unit’s Report Sexual Assault of People with an Intellectual Disability4 recommended that a police officer be identified as the “Intellectual Disability Liaison Officer” in every district, to ensure liaison between people in the community and the police and to provide education for people with an intellectual disability about the role of the police.5 This recommendation has not yet been implemented. The Committee also referred to the need for a central unit or identified officer with expertise in this area, as exists for domestic violence and sexual assault:
[t]his unit/this person needs to have a background and understanding in the area. Such a person/unit would take responsibility for ensuring updates on the issues reach all officers and that training is updated.6
General Duties Youth Officer Program
5.7 One of the more recent innovations in the New South Wales Police Service was the introduction, in 1988, of a General Duties Youth Officer program, replacing the “Police in Schools” Program. According to a submission to the New South Wales Legislative Council Standing Committee on Social Issues’ Report Juvenile Justice in New South Wales the objectives of this program are to:
- analyse what creates police work with young people in Patrols and recommend and implement strategies to reduce the work,
- advocate on young people’s issues in the patrol, and
- liaise with schools and other community agencies in the patrol to develop a multi-agency approach to crime prevention.7
According to the Standing Committee:
[i]n particular, the duties of a General Duties Youth Officer are determined in consultation with his or her Patrol Commander and the local community. Such duties generally include maintaining contact with young people on the streets and in youth clubs and liaising between youth agencies, the police and young people.8
5.8 General Duties police are uniformed officers who have day-to-day contact with people in the community. According to the Standing Committee Report, General Duties Youth Officers had, at the time of that Report, been appointed within 100 of the 170 patrols across New South Wales. The Committee recommended:
[t]hat at least one position of Police Youth Officer be a requirement for each police patrol area. The number of such officers would be related to the population, proportion of young offenders and the history of juvenile offending in a particular area.9
The Commission believes there may be scope for the adaptation of this idea for people with intellectual disabilities.
The Wagga Wagga Special Needs Unit
5.9 A similar concept has been operating in Wagga Wagga, as discussed in the Issues Paper. The Wagga Wagga Police Beat Section’s Special Needs Unit was created in late 1990 to interact with and assist members of the community with either intellectual or physical disabilities in their contact with the police. After the creation of this Unit, the Special Needs Liaison Officer met with local community organisations which provided services to people with an intellectual disability. As a result of these meetings four areas were identified as requiring attention by the Special Needs Liaison Officer:
- preventing crime against people with disabilities through education of people with disabilities in such areas as personal safety;
- assisting people with disabilities who are victims of crime to report crime through awareness of their rights and greater dealings with police;
- preventing crime by people with disabilities; and
- promoting a helpful image of police to people with disabilities - to overcome the limited knowledge of and interaction with police and, sometimes, their resultant fear of the police.
5.10 Suggested ways of dealing with these issues included:
- visits to disability organisations and schools by the police with as much personal contact as possible between the police and people with disabilities in those visits;
- crime prevention workshops (run by police and community representatives) on issues such as sexual assault, personal and home safety, drug and alcohol problems and social behaviour; and
- the attendance of the Special Needs Liaison Officer upon victims of crime to provide appropriate support and assistance and, depending on the severity of the crime, to minimise trauma to the victim.
5.11 One police response to a person with an intellectual disability caught offending is to merely return the person to their place of residence, on the basis that they do not understand what they are doing. Such a course of action, without any explanation that the person has broken the law, has unfortunately led some people to believe that they can repeat the offence with impunity. It has been suggested that the police may have a valuable role in explaining to the person that what they have done is wrong and the consequences of their continued behaviour. The Special Needs Liaison Officer has undertaken this task in some instances by showing an offender around the police station and stressing upon him or her the seriousness of the conduct.
5.12 Wagga Wagga presently has the only Special Needs Unit in the NSW Police Service. There are possible advantages and disadvantages of Special Needs Units or Officers, including the question of whether having such a unit will encourage other police officers to avoid all disability issues. There are also difficulties if the person filling that role does not have a proper understanding of the issues involved or proper training. It may be appropriate to consider why the Special Needs Unit has been effective in Wagga Wagga; for example, whether it was affected by the size of the community. If so, it may be best to trial the concept in similarly sized towns.
TENTATIVE PROPOSALS FOR REFORM: INTERNAL ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM
5.13 The Commission believes that for effective change to occur within the Police Service there must be consideration of the issue at both the Head Office and the operational levels, and an established system of contacts at both these levels. To allow this to occur, the Commission makes the following proposals for internal administrative reform.
15. There should be a general police policy - and a Policy Unit or Policy Officer - dealing with issues affecting people with an intellectual disability, so that the issue can be considered at Head Office level. This also will provide an appropriate contact at this level so that difficulties can be considered and reform implemented on an ongoing basis.
16. At the operational level, the development of a district-based General Duties Disability Officer or a patrol-based Special Needs Unit or Special Needs Officer should be considered.
INTER-DEPARTMENTAL AND INTER-AGENCY INITIATIVES
5.14 As discussed above, co-ordination between the police and other agencies (whether government departments or otherwise) is crucial, particularly in relation to expert assistance for the police in identifying whether a person has an intellectual disability. The need for co-ordination between police and the Department of Community Services (DOCS) has been constantly raised in the Commission’s consultations. The need for more services for people with an intellectual disability in the criminal justice system has also been commented upon. The Commission has already suggested (see proposal 7) particular services which may be most appropriately provided by DOCS, but the overwhelming need for coordination between services in this area should not be overlooked.
5.15 Recently, an inter-departmental committee has been set up, as an initiative of the Social Policy Directorate within the Department of Community Services. Two meetings have already been held to exchange ideas and improve channels of communication between agencies. The Commission believes that the whole issue of people with an intellectual disability in the criminal justice system must be tackled on an on-going basis at an inter-departmental level, including the establishment of policies and guidelines as to departmental responsibilities. This inter-departmental liaison must occur at the local and policy levels. The involvement of non-government agencies should also be considered.
TENTATIVE PROPOSALS FOR REFORM: EXTERNAL PROCEDURES
17. At both the operational and the policy level, effective channels of communication, consultation and responsibility between the Police Service and the Department of Community Services must be established.
18. A permanent inter-departmental Committee should be established to develop and update policy guidelines in this area. Such a Committee should be independent of any particular Department and should consider the involvement of non-government community organisations.
FOOTNOTES
1. New South Wales. Standing Committee on Social Issues Juvenile Justice in New South Wales (Parliament of NSW Legislative Council, Report 4, May 1992): Recommendation No. 32.
2. New South Wales. Law Reform Commission People with an Intellectual Disability and the Criminal Justice System: Consultations (Research Report 3, 1993).
3. See D Beckey “Working Arrangements with the Police and the Intellectual Handicap Services Branch of the Queensland Department of Health”, in D Challinger (ed) Intellectually Disabled Offenders (Australian Institute of Criminology, Seminar Proceedings 19, Canberra, 1987) at 47.
4. NSW Women’s Co-ordination Unit Sexual Assault of People with an Intellectual Disability (Final Report, 1990).
5. NSW Women’s Co-ordination Unit Recommendations 4.4 and 4.5.
6. New South Wales Sexual Assault Committee Submission (August 1992) at 3.
7. Standing Committee on Social Issues at para 3.6.2.
8. Standing Committee on Social Issues at para 3.6.2.
9. Standing Committee on Social Issues: Recommendation No. 31.
