The New South Wales police officer who performed a leg sweep on a handcuffed and disabled 18-year-old Aboriginal man after he had a seizure in Taree this week has been placed on restricted duties while his conduct is probed by the force.
The NSW police minister, Yasmin Catley, described a video of Tuesday’s arrest as “difficult to watch” amid calls for a parliamentary inquiry into the police’s use of force after other high-profile incidents, including the Tasering of Clare Nowland.
The arrest video, first reported by the Guardian, showed the young man being walked along a driveway by an officer before stumbling and falling to the ground, where he begins having a seizure.
The officer is then seen pulling him up and pushing him along the path before the young man collapses again and is handcuffed.
A second sequence shows the teenager being walked along the street while handcuffed before the same officer performs a leg sweep on him, throwing him violently to the ground.
The man was arrested after police were called after reports a man was attempting to break into properties. He has since been charged with being in possession of suspected stolen goods and is being held at Kempsey jail on remand.
Police have initiated an internal investigation into the case but refused to comment on the employment status of the officer involved.
Catley confirmed on Friday he had been placed on restricted duties.
“I acknowledge the video that’s circulating is difficult to watch, that’s why this investigation will consider the police response and arrest,” she said.
“I cannot comment further while this takes place.”
The teenager’s family and members of the community have called on the police to release more details about what happened after police also refused to comment on allegations an ambulance was never called for him when he had a seizure.
NSW Ambulance has no record of attending an incident at or around Gwenneth Avenue in Taree when the incident occurred.
The Greens justice spokesperson, Sue Higginson, is calling on the government to support a parliamentary inquiry into the NSW police’s use of force.
“The footage of this incident is shocking,” she said.
“A vulnerable person was experiencing a medical episode and the police responded with violence instead of calling an ambulance.
“This is completely unacceptable and shows us once again that we do have a police problem in this state.”
She said there was a “substantive deficit in the NSW police’s ability to respond to vulnerable people” and that an internal investigation was inappropriate.
“This is a problem too far-reaching and deeply embedded to be dealt with by NSW police internally,” she said.
The teenager’s aunt told the Guardian her nephew, who had attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and foetal alcohol spectrum disorder, thought he was going to die in jail after the arrest.
‘We need to get better’
The video has sparked calls for changes in the way police deal with disabled and vulnerable people.
June Riemer, the chief executive of the First Peoples Disability Network, said the treatment of the young man showed a lack of police understanding about medical and disability issues.
“There’s a lack of understanding around disability,” she said.
“This young fella had a disability. No one stopped to think about it. He wasn’t resisting and yet there was still that hardcore behaviour from the police to him, not even stopping for a minute if he had a seizure.
“We need to get better.”
Riemer also supported an inquiry into the use of force by police.
“Before we get real change, we need to have these inquiries and hold people accountable because they’re not listening,” she said.
Earlier this year it was revealed the NSW police used force against Indigenous Australians at vastly disproportionate rates during the past three years, according to police records obtained by the Redfern Legal Centre (RLC).
A report by the LECC had criticised the way NSW police recorded use of force incidents. It was particularly scathing of the way police collected information regarding the use of handcuffs, noting there was no category for their use in the force’s internal log system.
Sam Lee, a senior solicitor at the RLC, said the incident in Taree was not a one-off and there were concerns the use of force within the police had become “routine and systematic”.
In May a NSW police officer was found guilty of assaulting a 16-year-old Indigenous boy in inner Sydney in 2020, when he threw the boy to the ground using a similar leg sweep manoeuvre.
The case attracted national attention when mobile phone footage of the violent arrest – taken by the boy’s friends – was posted online. That footage, along with body-worn camera footage from officers present, was central to the case.
