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WA POLICE (Australia) have defended their policy of banning ethnic or religious words to describe offenders after it was attacked by the Police Union as 'political correctness gone mad'.
The policy, a direct order from Police Commissioner Karl O'Callaghan, means officers can no longer use details such as a suspect's nationality, race or religion when seeking public help."These rules don't give a true indication of who police are looking for," the source said.
"There is a big difference between a dark-skinned person being Aboriginal or African. And if we are looking for an Asian person-of-interest it's a bit narrow to describe them as simply having fair skin and dark hair."
But Equal Opportunity Commission state commissioner Yvonne Henderson said using ethnic descriptions reinforced negative stereotypes.
"It can feed into prejudiced ideas in the community about which ethnicities are mainly responsible for criminal behaviour," she said.
WA Police defend policy on not naming offenders' race | News.com.au
The policy, a direct order from Police Commissioner Karl O'Callaghan, means officers can no longer use details such as a suspect's nationality, race or religion when seeking public help."These rules don't give a true indication of who police are looking for," the source said.
"There is a big difference between a dark-skinned person being Aboriginal or African. And if we are looking for an Asian person-of-interest it's a bit narrow to describe them as simply having fair skin and dark hair."
But Equal Opportunity Commission state commissioner Yvonne Henderson said using ethnic descriptions reinforced negative stereotypes.
"It can feed into prejudiced ideas in the community about which ethnicities are mainly responsible for criminal behaviour," she said.
WA Police defend policy on not naming offenders' race | News.com.au