Police legal representation at an inquest into an Indigenous teenager's shooting death during a botched arrest may more than double if the Northern Territory officers' union has its way.
Kumanjayi Walker, 19, died after Constable Zachary Rolfe shot him three times while trying to take him into custody in Yuendumu, northwest of Alice Springs on November 9, 2019.
The inquest into his death has heard from Superintendent Jody Nobbs, who spent Tuesday in the Alice Springs courtroom witness box.
His wide-ranging evidence was highly critical of a team, including Const Rolfe, deployed to the remote community to help arrest the Warlpiri man.
It caused the NT Police Force's barrister, Ian Freckelton KC, to have proceedings temporarily adjourned on Wednesday morning so he could consult the police executive over "the ramifications of what we heard yesterday".
When the inquest resumed, the NT Police Association's barrister, Sally Ozolins, raised further concerns with coroner Elisabeth Armitage over police officers mentioned in the inquest who were not legally represented.
She said that "given the way the evidence has been adduced to date" they should be. She also asked whether it was appropriate to continue hearing evidence while the officers remained without legal representation.
The inquest heard there had been delays with approvals for the officers' lawyers and Dr Freckelton faced a conflict of interest if he represented them in court.
Ms Armitage said the inquest would push ahead on Wednesday afternoon with evidence on Senior Sergeant Shaun Furniss but reminded Ms Ozolins that there was no witness scheduled for Thursday and the inquest was adjourned the following week.
"I'm hoping all these matters can be resolved in that time frame," the coroner said.
Const Rolfe's barrister David Edwardson KC raised concerns over Supt Nobbs expressing his personal opinions about the police officers sent to Yuendumu, who were involved in the shooting of Mr Walker.
He said the coroner's counsel assisting team had failed to warn the other lawyers about the evidence and as a result those officers were "exposed".
It included agreeing on multiple occasions with counsel assisting Peggy Dwyer that the team deployed to Yuendumu lacked discipline and acted in a manner that was "counter-productive" to police policy.
He also said the four men's pursuit of Mr Walker on November 9 was "outside the scope of my clear instruction" and the team should not have been armed with high-powered assault weapons in the community of about 800.
Supt Nobbs also expressed disappointment and frustration with police officers in Alice Springs who were found to have shared racist text messages with each other in the months before Mr Walker was killed.
"It's completely unacceptable, offensive and hurtful and there is no place for it," he told the inquest, now in its fourth week.
The messages variously described Aboriginal people as Neanderthals, "grubby f***s," "n***ers" and "bush c**ns".
The men also used derogatory language to refer to Indigenous colleagues and talked about "towelling up the locals" in another remote community.
Asked if he would have sent the men to the community had he known they were expressing the beliefs detailed in the messages, Supt Nobbs said: "No, certainly not".
"If the starting point is an ill-disciplined workforce and a broad contempt ... for the community in which they are operating in ... there's no foundation for the plan," he said.
"Anything that will flow from that is destined to fail."
The inquest continues on Thursday with a day of legal argument.
