Settlement of racial profiling case bought by Flemington Kensington community legal centre

Liberty Victoria congratulates Flemington Kensington Legal Service, Arnold Bloch Leibler Law Firm and the barristers and legal team who worked on a pro-bono basis to take anti-discrimination proceedings in the Federal Court.
The race discrimination case, which was settled yesterday, required enormous time and effort in its preparation. Liberty Victoria notes that in an environment of extreme constraint for legal funding, public interest cases are difficult and costly to launch. The objective was to expose deficiencies in police practices such as racial profiling regarding Australians of African origin in the Flemington and North Melbourne area.
The settlement that was achieved will hopefully result in an attitudinal change towards policing in racially diverse communities. Liberty Victoria supports the call for a stop and search receipting system so that young people who are routinely stopped by police can be armed with evidence of unreasonable racial profiling.