The specialist police unit involved in the fatal shooting of Indigenous teenager Kumanjayi Walker fulfilled the description of a paramilitary group, an inquest has heard.
Constable Zachary Rolfe shot Walker three times during a bungled arrest in Yuendumu, north-west of Alice Springs, on 9 November 2019. He was found not guilty of all criminal charges in relation to the death.
Rolfe had been sent with the Northern Territory police force’s immediate response team to apprehend the Warlpiri teenager.
Jude McCulloch, an emeritus professor of criminology from Monash University, on Tuesday told the inquest into Walker’s death that based on her understanding of the group’s role and access to weapons, “it is definitely a paramilitary group”.
McCulloch, the author of a book on paramilitary policing in Australia, said that while such groups had their place in modern policing, she questioned their appropriateness in the context of the NT.
She said given the region’s history of militarised colonisation, the use of tactical groups for community policing could undermine trust and legitimacy.
“That’s the whole basis of community policing in general – the idea that policing can only be successful with the consent of the community,” McCulloch told the inquest.
She told the inquest that text messages sent by Rolfe showed a “cowboy” mindset with a “sense of impunity and no accountability – not only no accountability to the community, but no accountability to other police”.
“It’s not the mindset of a disciplined police officer, or even a disciplined member of a paramilitary chain,” McCulloch said.
Last week, the NT deputy police commissioner, Murray Smalpage, told the inquest that guns were integral to the territory’s police force and ruled out their removal.
The court also heard that a sergeant in the immediate response team had an SMS exchange with Rolfe in March 2019 in which they discussed Rolfe’s efforts to source 40,000 rounds of ammunition on behalf of the team.
The sergeant told Rolfe “this New Zealand thing” – in reference to the Christchurch massacre the previous day – “might help us out for sure” in obtaining the right equipment from command.
McCulloch was also asked about 46 reported incidents in which Rolfe was noted to have used force, 22 of which involved the use of a police “accoutrement”.
These incidents included 12 relating to the use of handcuffs, five relating to the use of pepper spray, three a firearm, and one each involving a taser and baton.
Peggy Dwyer, counsel assisting the coroner, also referred to three incidents in which people who had fled from Rolfe suffered head injuries after being apprehended.
She told McCulloch there appeared to be no evidence that a superior officer spoke to Rolfe regarding the reasons for those use of force incidents.
McCulloch said that if that was the case it pointed to a more systemic problem with how the force operated, as opposed to issues confined to one individual.
The inquest continues.
