Litigating racial profiling: examining the evidence for institutional racial profiling by police against African-Australians in Flemington, Victoria

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article draws conclusions about the existence of racial profiling by Victoria Police from the rich and varied data that emerged from the 2013 public settlement of Haile-Michael v Konstantindis, a racial discrimination claim filed in the Federal Court of Australia in 2010. The Federal Court may have made similar conclusions had the matter proceeded to trial. The data I draw on includes the text of a Flemington Police operational order, police field contact remarks, statistical data analysed by expert witnesses in the claim, a small sample of some of the complaints by the applicants, and public statements made by senior police. I argue that a triangulation of the data is consistent with a conclusion that Victoria Police engaged in institutional racial profiling.