Northern Territory Police let racism go unchecked, with an elite unit handing out racist mock awards no officer reported, a coroner found.
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What happened
On 7 July 2025 NT Coroner Elisabeth Armitage, in a 683-page finding on the 2019 fatal police shooting of a young Aboriginal man in a remote community, found the NT Police Force bore the hallmarks of institutional racism and that racist language and actions were not confined to the officer who fired. She cited racist mock certificates handed out at the tactical unit's Christmas parties and found that no officer who knew of them reported them, which she called clear evidence of entrenched, systemic and structural racism. She made more than 30 recommendations; the NT Government supported about a third, and the Police Commissioner accepted 9 of the 18 directed at police in full and 7 in part.
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