Tuck standing by the pool where his neighbour and the police didn’t believe he belonged. Photo: Michelle Kroll.
The 38-year-old Canberra man of African descent who was arrested for trespassing at his own home says the sharing of his story has brought about some “healing” as community members have expressed their support for him and his family.
But the police are standing by their actions.
As first reported by Region on Monday (1 July), a Zimbabwean Australian (who has asked to be named only as Tuck) was arrested last Thursday when a neighbour at his Narrabundah townhouse told him he didn’t belong at the complex’s pool and barbecue area and subsequently called police.
Five male police officers in three police vehicles arrived at the scene a few minutes later, also disbelieving that Tuck lived at that address.
He was arrested on suspicion of trespassing, handcuffed and placed in a police van while officers searched his home.
They quickly unarrested Tuck once they realised he did, in fact, live where he said he lived, and then they left without apology.
Once the incident was reported by Region, other neighbours, as well as some of the wider Canberra community, rallied around Tuck and his young family in a show of support.
African advocacy groups have labelled the whole incident a terrible example of racial profiling.
Tuck has lodged a formal complaint against the police.
ACT Policing bosses are standing by the officers involved in the arrest, however, saying no racial profiling had taken place and that the victim needed to take some responsibility for his behaviour when approached by police.
The ACT Government says it is awaiting the outcome of an internal investigation.
Police Minister Mick Gentleman told Region: “ACT Policing does a fantastic job keeping the Canberra community safe. There are robust complaint mechanisms in place for people who do feel dissatisfied with the way they are treated by police and I await the outcome of the internal investigation.”
In response to allegations of racism, Mr Gentleman said: “Every person has a right to feel safe. We are not a community that tolerates racism. Vilification of someone’s race or religious beliefs is unlawful.”
Mr Gentleman urged anyone who experiences racism or vilification to contact the ACT Human Rights Commission.
ACT Chief Police Officer, Deputy Commissioner Scott Lee, said the officers involved acted appropriately. He accused Tuck of being belligerent.
“The body-worn cameras have been reviewed and certainly the advice I’ve got from our commander is that our members acted appropriately,” the Deputy Commissioner said during an ABC Radio interview.
“They certainly weren’t racially profiling the individual and they weren’t racially motivated.
“They were simply responding to a complaint where they were trying to identify whether the man was, in fact, a resident.”
Deputy Commissioner Lee said he did not know how many police vehicles attended the scene or even if there were more than the two officers present who were shown on the video footage.
He said when the victim showed police officers his house keys, they said “that’s fine”, but wanted confirmation he lived there.
Video footage taken by Tuck on his phone (seen by Region), however, shows one officer saying of the house keys Tuck was showing them, “That doesn’t prove anything”.
Deputy Commissioner Lee said he won’t publicly release the police body cam footage of the incident, but the results of an independent investigation to be conducted by ACT Policing’s workplace incident complaints process will be announced.
He said he was unaware whether the complaining neighbour had described Tuck’s colour to them when accusing him of trespassing.
The Deputy Commissioner cautioned against linking the arrest to racism and said he didn’t believe ACT Policing had an issue with dealing with Canberra’s multicultural residents.
He said the man was arrested because of his behaviour towards the police and the “level of resistance” he displayed.
“When our police officers simply asked the man to show them the apartment where he was living, the man obviously felt that he was being targeted, which he wasn’t, and so he became belligerent with our police officers, which made it quite difficult for them to confirm whether or not the man was a resident,” he said.
Following Region’s initial report of the incident, Tuck expressed gratitude to the kind people who have reached out to him.
He said while he remains traumatised by what happened to him, the fact the account was being shared was “having a healing effect in the community as people share their own experiences”.
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