Tuck has taken his complaint to the Prime Minister and Senator David Pocock. Photo: Michelle Kroll.
The Australian citizen of Zimbabwean descent who was recently arrested for trespassing at his own home has taken his ordeal to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese while trying to find out from police the status of his formal complaint against them.
Tuck (he has asked to be publicly known only by his nickname) wrote to “The Investigators Australian Federal Police” late on Sunday (28 July) with a detailed 12-point email asking why he had not received any acknowledgement from police about his complaint.
He attached his three-page formal letter of complaint he had made four weeks earlier.
Tuck copied in the Prime Minister (on two of the PM’s email addresses) and Senator David Pocock. He also copied Region into the email.
Clearly frustrated at his treatment, Tuck wrote, “I find it necessary and urgent to declare the following truths” before again declaring his innocence.
Region broke the news on 1 July of how the Narrabundah man was resting by the pool and BBQ area of his townhouse complex while recovering from a stint in hospital over heart complications when a neighbour confronted him to say he didn’t belong there.
The neighbour then called the police, who immediately arrived at the complex – five officers in three vehicles – and arrested Tuck on suspicion of trespassing.
They handcuffed him and placed him in a police van.
The police subsequently unarrested him once they spent 10 minutes rummaging around his home to determine he did, in fact, live where he said he did.
Tuck was holding keys to his home and the pool area and showed them to the police when they arrived.
Police have defended their actions and have accused Tuck of being “belligerent” with them, but Tuck believes he was racially profiled and has lodged a formal complaint against the police.
An official investigation is now underway following Tuck’s complaint and the media attention the episode has received.
Police have denied racial profiling Tuck and have publicly acknowledged there is an investigation underway.
They have promised to release the findings of the investigation but not to release police body cam footage of the arrest.
Initial police comments also appear to defend the actions of the neighbour, but police have not made contact with Tuck since the incident.
“I have not received any acknowledgement of my complaint nor any other communication from the police,” Tuck says in the email sent to the PM.
“I understand from the public communications of the police that an investigation of my complaint is being conducted, though I was never advised of or included in such investigations.”
He then goes on to outline his concerns.
“I was an innocent citizen of Australia enjoying the amenities at his home, without causing any disturbance to anyone or harm to any property.” he wrote.
“I was entitled, by virtue of my status as a citizen of Australia and of my tax contribution to the funding of the police, to the protection of my rights and to the protection against harassment and false accusation by another citizen.
“Before the police initiated a conversation with me, they did not have any evidence that a crime had even happened.
“In the course of investigating a report of a crime, by means of talking to me, they still did not gather any evidence that a crime had happened … The police wrongfully harmed me (in many ways), resulting in tremendous mental injury.
“The harm was wrongful in that none of the actions and words of the police that resulted in my harm were carried out on any evidence of wrongdoing by me.”
Later in the letter, Tuck outlines how the incident remains traumatic for him, and he asks the police to present any evidence of his wrongdoing.
“If there is sufficient evidence of any claim in the police’s defence, may the police please go beyond a mere assertion that there is sufficient evidence to justify all the above actions, and actually present it in response,” he wrote.
“However, if indeed, there is nothing evidential on which all the mistreatment of me was based, and there were grave irregularities in collecting and establishing evidence before engaging me and ridding me of my dignity, may the investigators please concur with the wrongful nature of what occurred on 27 June 2024.
“I ask that in your connection as my fellow Australians, you may give fair consideration of the facts that I have outlined above. I trust that you and all who are witness to these facts are committed to a just outcome for me and my family.”
Following the public outcry after Tuck’s arrest, ACT Policing met with African community groups in a bid to start repairing some of the damage the community groups say the incident has caused.
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