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NSW Police and Surry Hills Local Area Command (LAC) have hit back at
recent media coverage alleging officers at the station are slow to
investigate reports of homophobic crime and on occasion discourage
people from claiming an incident was motivated by homophobia.
The LAC has come under fire in The Sydney Star Observer during the past two weeks. The paper reported claims by Craig Gee and his partner Shane Brennen, who were brutally bashed, that officers at Surry Hills had not responded satisfactorily while investigating their case.
Tensions between ACON and the LAC were also reported by SSO, along with claims that Surry Hills’ complaints process would be investigated by the NSW Professional Standards Unit and the Regional Commander Catherine Burn.
This week Paul Carey, Central Metropolitan Region Commander Acting Assistant Commissioner, said in a statement, “It should be pointed out that it can be very difficult for police officers to ask a victim whether they believe a crime was motivated by homophobia, or if it is a hate-related crime,
especially if the victim has not voluntarily stated their sexuality. It is a sensitive topic that can lead to allegations of police either making inappropriate assumptions about someone’s sexuality or, or on the other hand, not treating a crime as a hate crime.”
His comments were echoed by Superintendent Daryl Donnolley at Surry Hills LAC. “I have never denied there are incidents of homophobic violence on Oxford Street,” he told SX. “I agree it’s under-reported; I can only go by what people come in here and tell me.”
On the issue of the handling of Gee’s complaint, Donnolley said recent media reports had been “totally incorrect”.
“I can take you back blow by blow on everything that has happened. When stuff is entered into the system it’s timed and dated. We were reluctant originally to publish CCTV [footage of possible assailants] for legal reasons because it does affect the investigation process. There were a lot of things done that were never reported.”
Inferences that Aboriginal people were responsible for the attack on Gee and his partner were also incorrect, Donnolley said. “What we published was that the people who used his credit cards [were of Aboriginal appearance]. We never at any time said that Aboriginal people committed the assault. The victims identified the attackers as Caucasian males.”
While Donnolley was “not aware” of any investigations into Surry Hills LAC by various departments, he “would welcome” them. “I’d stand on the information I have here and records of contact between victims and police,” he said. “There’s nothing to hide here.”
As for officers at Surry Hills actively discouraging people to report an attack as a gay hate crime, Donnolley said this was “rubbish … absolute crap” and also dismissed claims by ACON that officers bad-mouthed the organisation.
“I have no idea what ACON is going on about,” he said. “We agreed with ACON about the safe haven project and they agreed to supply us with details of reports of homophobic violence, which they haven’t done and six weeks have passed.”
Surry Hills LAC is keen to work with all interested parties to resolve the issue of homophobic violence on the strip, Donnolley said. “But it would be nice if they stopped sensationalising incidents and painting us as a homophobic command, which clearly we are not.”
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