Police resources
Aiv PUGLIELLI (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (19:01): (711) My adjournment matter tonight is to the Minister for Police, and the action that I seek is that he reconsider the rollout of tasers to more police officers and PSOs. It is not going to make the community safer, and in fact it will make things more unsafe for many people. We just do not need more tasers. The Federation of Community Legal Centres has long argued that tasers should not be used as a panacea for police firearm use. We have seen that they are often misused and that when they are used they bring significant risks to vulnerable groups who are already over-represented in statistics on the use of lethal force by police in Victoria, including First Nations people. The reality is that with this additional less lethal weaponry comes more of a chance that it will be deployed instead of trying other tactics such as de-escalation, negotiation or other nonviolent means. There is also the risk of usage creep, where instances of authorised usage are further and further expanded and again more people are put at risk of harm or death from these weapons.
Without a police ombudsman to provide independent oversight of the inevitable misuse of these weapons there cannot be meaningful investigation into these incidents. The Australian Lawyers Alliance, Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service, Human Rights Law Centre and the Police Accountability Project have jointly written to the Attorney-General expressing their concern about this rollout of more tasers. They have suggested that the money would be better spent on prevention strategies, on mental health resources and on training police in de-escalation, and I wholeheartedly agree. We should all agree. Minister, please reconsider this decision and invest instead in less violent ways of policing.