This week’s annual celebration of National Sorry Day on May 26 brings to the forefront issues facing the indigenous community and the NSW Police focus on Aboriginal engagement. It was 20 years ago that NSW Police Commissioner Peter Ryan issued an official apology to members of the stolen generation, acknowledging the role that police played in enforcing past unjust laws.

In 2009 the NSW Police Force established the Aboriginal Employment Strategy, promoting the organisation as an employer of choice for Aboriginal people. Numerous initiatives under this strategy continue today, as the NSWPF looks to increase the levels of Aboriginal employment.

The current Aboriginal Strategic Direction was renewed earlier this year, and provides a framework for positive engagement within Aboriginal communities throughout NSW. Within the Southern Region, Assistant Commissioner Peter Barrie APM proudly supports this framework as the corporate sponsor for Aboriginal engagement.

“We will continue our focus of community policing by consulting with Aboriginal people regarding offences of concern to them and work in partnership to achieve outcomes that reduce crime and the fear of crime,” he said.

As the Hume Police District’s Aboriginal engagement officer, I believe consultation is the key. I could present to you all sorts of statistics regarding the indigenous population throughout the Hume Police District and the corresponding rate of those recorded as victims or offenders; I could tell you that the rate of crime among the indigenous community in our district is relatively consistent with the population, and in fact has decreased during 2018; I could tell you that all the information we have points to virtually non-existent levels of bias related crime in our area. What I wouldn’t learn from these statistics is what is important to the people in our community.

It was anecdotally said to me recently that if bias-related crime is occurring, perhaps it’s just not being reported to the police. And this is what we want to change.