Victoria Police's Decade-Long Ban on Racial Profiling: Evaluating Its Impact

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Police in Victoria are facing accusations of racial profiling after data was released showing Aboriginal, African, Middle Eastern, and Pacific Island communities are being disproportionately targeted in searches and the use of force.

The 2024 data was released on Monday by the Racial Profiling Data Monitoring Project, which is operated by the Melbourne-based Centre Against Racial Profiling, which said the findings were “staggering, but not surprising”.

The data, obtained earlier this year under freedom of information laws, included all searches conducted by Victoria Police in 2024 that were recorded on its L19C forms — searches without a warrant.

Project researchers said that in 2024, Aboriginal people were 15 times more likely to be searched by Victoria Police officers than white people, while people perceived to be African were about nine times more likely.

People perceived as Middle Eastern and people perceived to be Pacific Islander were five times more likely to be searched than white people.

The report’s authors said that excluding vehicle-only searches, around 17 per cent of police search records failed to record ethnic appearance, “despite completion of this field on field contact forms being made mandatory in 2019”.

Victoria Police mandates officers to document a field contact report if they encounter individuals under suspicious circumstances or engage with someone due to a specifically identified situation.

Four police in uniform walking along a pedestrian crossing.

In 2024, researchers highlighted a troubling disparity, revealing that Aboriginal individuals were 15 times more likely to be searched by Victoria Police compared to their white counterparts. Source: AAP / James Ross

A woman with short black hair, wearing a black blazer, standing against a brick wall.

The data further illustrated that African Victorians faced a significantly higher likelihood—23.7 times more—of being involved in police pursuits than white individuals.

“These statistics reveal a concerning pattern where certain racialized groups experience police searches far more frequently than white people,” the researchers noted.

Hopkins said the high rates of search, coupled with the use of force, indicated that an increase in stops, questioning, and searches was “leading directly to higher rates of violence against these communities”.

Excessive searches ‘forging a path’ for First Nations people

Nerita Waight, chief executive of the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service, said abuses of power and discrimination against Aboriginal people by Victoria Police were happening “systemically and excessively”.

“This initial contact with police forges a path that our community are disproportionately familiar with — being forced to interact with the criminal legal system.”

Victoria Police said it had zero tolerance towards racial profiling, and that its officers were trained to police “in response to a person’s behaviour, not their background”.

“Assertions made in this research are incorrect,” a Victoria Police spokesperson told SBS News in a statement.

“It is not mandatory for police to record ethnic appearance information when conducting all searches. It appears this has been confused with the requirement when police are making a field contact report.

“This is when they have obtained details from someone they suspect has committed or is about to commit an offence, or may be able to assist with the investigation of an indictable offence. It has nothing to do with searches.”

The search data collected by the Racial Profiling Data Monitoring Project is recorded on the L19C field contact form.

With regards to the data around the use of force, the spokesperson said the figures included both when police used physical force and also when they “merely threaten to use force”.

In the case of Tasers, the spokesperson said it included when officers draw their device but do not discharge it, something they said happens in “close to nine out of every 10 incidents involving Tasers”.

Hopkins said the police statement was disappointing, calling it a “form of gaslighting”.

Victoria’s crime ‘crackdown’

This year, Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan has introduced several law and order policies she says are aimed at reducing crime in the state.

Children as young as 14 who committed serious crimes could face possible life sentences under the laws.

Advocates have criticised the proposal — which mirrors a policy adopted by Queensland Premier David Crisafulli in 2024 — saying it could entrench disadvantage and put vulnerable youth on a path of lifelong incarceration.

— With additional reporting by the Australian Associated Press