O Opinion
Charge of the “right” brigade “W
Constable Zach Rolfe
Mark Carroll President Police Association of South Australia Police Federation of Australia
hen I was first posted out here, it took a fair while before the community accepted me and started to trust me. That’s just how it is when a cop is first posted to a remote indigenous community.” Rebecca (not her real name) is a member of the Police Federation of Australia and she works in a remote indigenous community. She asked for her posting because she is committed to genuine reconciliation. Out there, it’s hot and dry. The red dust and the little bush flies get into everything – your eyes, your nose, your ears. It’s a dry community – or it’s supposed to be. There’s plenty of rubbish, plenty of broken-down cars and plenty of engaging little kids who don’t go to school nearly as often as they should. That’s the reality of life on a remote indigenous community. “We do lots of ordinary cop stuff dayto-day – but stopping grog getting in is the hardest,” Rebecca says. “We can’t be everywhere. “When the grog does get through, the trouble starts. The simplest thing, like snarling at someone else’s kid, can plunge the community into violent chaos. Some families have been fighting for so long they can’t even remember why. It can get really scary. “At the same time as trying to keep people safe, we have to try to keep our hard-won community relationships intact.
“Building trust and understanding with indigenous communities takes time. You have to work to maintain those relationships – but it’s hard to do that from under the bus where your government has thrown you.”
“But it’s not always like that. Once you earn the trust of the community, it is the best place in the world. The beaming smiles, the welcomes – all these things are incredibly precious. I’ve learned so much.” Rebecca despairs at the recent Yuendumu tragedy. Of course, she feels for the young Walpiri man’s family but, like police officers across Australia, she’s standing behind Constable Zach Rolfe. “It could have been any one of us cops in any one of the hundreds of remote indigenous communities we look after,” she says. “Years of building trust and understanding has been lost. It’s a horrible tragedy whichever way you look at it.” Inflammatory and intemperate remarks about the Yuendumu episode in mainstream and social media outlets have made an already delicate situation worse. Many of the people who contributed to this commentary, including politicians, should know better. Constable Rolfe is a decorated veteran of the war in Afghanistan and the recipient of bravery awards. Now, as well as the murder charge, he faces investigations by the NT Coroner, the government ombudsman, the Office of the Independent Commissioner Against Corruption and a police professional standards tribunal. Of course, this tragic episode must be investigated fully but police officers all around the country are rightly outraged that Constable Rolfe has been charged with murder. And so quickly. How can this young constable, with an otherwise exemplary record, be charged with murder within four days of the event – and long before these other investigations have been concluded? It’s hard not to see this murder charge as the charge of the “right” brigade. It’s a cowardly response from
a government and a department of public prosecutions hurrying to be seen to be doing the “right” thing in the face of ill-informed clamour and political correctness. Justice should walk on both sides of the street. The Police Federation of Australia, which represents more than 63,000 cops, is angered by this murder charge. Constable Rolfe and his family have the full support of cops and their families right around Australia. As police officers, we put ourselves in harm’s way every day to protect the communities we serve. We expect our members to be accountable, absolutely, but we also expect our departments and our governments to back us in when things get ugly. As Rebecca said: “Building trust and understanding with indigenous communities takes time. You have to work to maintain those relationships – but it’s hard to do that from under the bus where your government has thrown you.”
Rebecca is a police officer who lives and works on a remote indigenous community outside of the Northern Territory. February 2020
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