Megan\u2019s children were just 11 and 13 when what they describe as excessive home visits by the police began.<\/p>\n
In 2021, the brothers \u2013 who are Indigenous \u2013 had been bailed after being passengers in a stolen car. Over the next 20 months, the police visited their home to conduct bail checks more than 150 times. Often police visited in the middle of the night, or in the early hours of the morning when the children were asleep.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey would knock on the door, bang on the windows with their torches, shine torches through the windows. It was relentless,\u201d says Megan, who is using a pseudonym for legal reasons.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want police to understand what that felt like but they don\u2019t seem to be listening. Now me and my boys have to go to court and relive it just to get some justice.\u201d<\/p>\n
The brothers, who are from regional New South Wales<\/a>, are launching a case against the police in the federal court over the checks, alleging racial discrimination. The firm representing the brothers, the Justice and Equity Centre (JEC), claims the family are not alone.<\/p>\n \u201cStories like these are too common,\u201d says Grace Gooley, a senior solicitor at the Justice and Equity Centre.<\/p>\n The JEC commissioned research which analysed police data and found Aboriginal children on bail were subject to home visits more often than non-Aboriginal children in the five years to March 2024. It also found Aboriginal children were 11.7% more likely to be checked and subjected to 42% more checks on average. They were also more than twice as likely to be the subject of \u201cvery frequent\u201d checks, meaning more than 11 checks in 30 days.<\/p>\n Sign up: AU Breaking News email<\/a><\/p>\n The case will turn on this research, which was conducted by the UNSW professor Don Weatherburn and Curtin University associate professor Anna Ferrante. If the case is successful, the JEC says it would be the first court finding of racial discrimination based on statistical evidence in NSW.<\/p>\n The JEC had filed a racial discrimination complaint about the matter at the Australian Human Rights Commission on behalf of the brothers earlier this year. The complaint could not be settled through conciliation with NSW police, leading the family to turn to the federal court to make a finding, the JEC said.<\/p>\n Gooley says she believes Megan\u2019s kids were subject to excessive bail checks because they are Aboriginal.<\/p>\n \u201cNSW police are failing on Closing the Gap targets and the disproportionate rates of arrest and imprisonment of Aboriginal young people in NSW are unacceptable,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n The former NSW police commissioner Karen Webb said in 2023 that making officers responsible for addressing Closing the Gap targets would lead to \u201ccompeting duties\u201d. The comments came in response to a five-year review by the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission into the force\u2019s approach to Aboriginal people that said the police did not have a commitment to reach these targets.<\/p>\n Megan says there were often three, and sometimes up to six, police officers who would come to her house to conduct the bail checks on her children, who had no significant criminal history and are now aged 15 and 18. She says police would often conduct a bail check on the brothers if a car in the regional city she lives in had been reported stolen.<\/p>\n \u201c[They would say] \u2018Well, if you don\u2019t let us in, we\u2019ll have them up for a breach of bail, and we\u2019ll be back to arrest them\u2019,\u201d Megan recalls. \u201cI was too scared to go to sleep, in case I missed them knocking on the door.<\/p>\n \u201cPolice say they treat everyone fairly, but it feels like we\u2019ve been targeted. And the numbers back us up,\u201d Megan says, referring to the research conducted by the JEC.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want police to stop targeting Aboriginal kids, and we want people to know what\u2019s happening.\u201d<\/p>\n In 2023, the police dumped a decades-old policy that proactively policed<\/a> children who had recently offended or were at risk of offending. It came after the 2023 police watchdog report on the NSW police approach to Aboriginal people, which found the strategy was potentially unlawful.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n Sign up to Breaking News Australia<\/p>\n Get the most important news as it breaks<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com<\/a> to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n A 2025 report by the watchdog into bail checks recommended<\/a> police only conduct home visits if there is a court order.<\/p>\n A spokesperson for NSW police says: \u201cProactive policing strategies, including bail compliance checks, are designed to protect the people of NSW and to ensure persons charged with committing criminal offences are behaving in compliance with their bail conditions, which are often imposed by the court.\u201d<\/p>\n The spokesperson says police recognise the overrepresentation of Aboriginal youth in the criminal justice system, and their strategies are guided the Aboriginal Strategic Direction and Youth Strategy.<\/p>\n \u201cThese strategies reflect the Closing the Gap Implementation Plan, ensuring that culturally appropriate diversionary practices are implemented whenever possible.\u201d<\/p>\n Last year, amid a heated state-wide debate on youth crime, the government passed a year-long law that made it harder for young people accused of committing a break and enter or car theft offence while on bail to get bail again. The laws were extended in February for another three years, despite no review yet being conducted into its effectiveness to curb crime.<\/p>\n The NSW government has also increased funding for intervention and diversion programs, committing $88m over four years.<\/p>\n In the two years from June 2023, there was a 34% increase in young people<\/a> in custody in the state. Aboriginal young people accounted for 60% of the youth custody population.<\/p>\n