Key Findings (based on available data)
During 2018, 2019, 2022, 2023 and 2024 Victoria Police were consistently less likely to find a reported item when they searched a person they perceived to be African, Middle Eastern/Mediterranean, Indian and Asian compared with people they perceived to be White. This means they are likely to be searching these groups with less reasonable grounds than when they search White people. This is evidence of racial profiling against these groups.
In 2024 Aboriginal people were fifteen times more likely to be searched by Victoria Police than White people, people perceived to be African were about nine times more likely to be searched than White people, people perceived as Middle-Eastern were five times more likely to be searched than White people, and people perceived to be Pacific Islander were five times more likely to be searched than White people. This indicates that police are targeting these groups for investigation.
In 2024 Victoria Police were:
10 times more likely to use force against a person they perceived to be Aboriginal than a person they perceived to be White;
10.6 times more likely to use force against a woman they perceived to be Aboriginal than a woman they perceived to be White;
13 times more likely to use Tasers against Aboriginal people than White people
3.4 times more likely to initiate a pursuit against a person they perceived to be Aboriginal than a White person.
In 2024, Victoria Police were:
7.2 times more likely to use force against a person they perceived to be African than a person they perceived to be White.
6.1 times more likely to use a taser against a person they perceived to be African than a person they perceived to be White.
23.7 times more likely to initiate a police pursuit against someone they perceived to be African than a person they perceived to be White.
4.3 times more likely to use force against a woman they perceived to be African than a woman they perceived to be White.
In 2024 Victoria Police were:
5.3 times more likely to use force against a Pacific Islander than a White person;
5.9 times more likely to use a taser against a Pacific Islander than a White person.
In 2024 Victoria Police were:
2.3 times more likely to use force against a person they perceived to be Middle-Eastern than a White person;
1.8 times more likely to use a Taser against a person they perceived to be Middle-Eastern than a White person;
3.5 times more likely to initiate a pursuit against a person they perceived to be Middle-Eastern than a White person.
The over-policing of particular communities evident in the search data is confronting and deeply disturbing. As the search find rates for all racial appearance groups is less than 1 in 4, the over-policing (over-sampling) of particular groups is evidence of both systemic racism in Victoria Police practices and systematic racial profiling. If police are fifteen times more likely to search a person they perceive to be Aboriginal than a person they perceive to be White — and the hit rates for searches of these groups are roughly the same (less than 1 in 4) — this means that Aboriginal people are fifteen times more likely to be criminalised and enter the criminal legal system than White people as a consequence of police activities alone. If police search (or otherwise investigate) a particular community at a greater rate than others, this will result in their discovering more crime in that community than others. This over-sampling has dramatic consequences in terms of who is arrested, who has to deal with courts, who has force used against them, who has to encounter the prison system, criminal record discrimination, time off work, impacts on families, stigma, stereotyping and a whole range of other consequences including increasing risks of physical and psychological harm and deaths associated with police and criminal justice contact.
Excluding vehicle only searches, about 17% of police search records fail to record ethnic appearance despite completion of this field on field contact forms being made mandatory in 2019. The search data we have collected is recorded on L19C field contact form.
12.5% of Use of Force Data is missing ethnic appearance.
What do these findings mean? The findings provide evidence that Victoria Police continues to engage in racial profiling despite its 2015 ban. Furthermore, the findings suggest that racial profiling in Victoria is likely to be at least as problematic as other multicultural societies, such as England and Wales, and states and provinces in the US and Canada where data exists. Consequently, addressing racial profiling deserves far greater institutional attention in Australia than it currently receives.
