A former WA police officer has shared his experiences on the force saying he left because he was appalled by it’s toxic and racist environment.
In an article published by The Guardian this morning, Jim Taylor spoke of his time working with the police force’s Juvenile Aid Group.
He says one of the worst moments in his time on the force was when he was instructed to strip search a 10 year old boy.
The boy was the youngest of a group of four who were rounded up without committing an offence.
Taylor told The Guardian that children were strip-searched “pretty much all the time”, even when they hadn’t committed an offence.
He says WA police would regularly target Indigenous people to inflate arrest numbers, using racist language as a deliberate tactic to arc them up.
He also says Indigenous people living in the street were targeted because they were extremely easy.
The article says West Australian police wouldn’t answer specific questions about strip-searching children and instead, they say the force is working to improve the relationship with Indigenous communities.
