An undercover police officer could have been filmed using a stun gun on a suspect, a law school professor says.
Key points:The undercover officer was filmed using the stun gun during a search in November 2015A law school law professor says the law school will now look into the incidentProfessor David Hirst said the incident highlights the need for police officers to wear body cameras in the future.
“We need to ensure that the public trust is not compromised and that our officers wear body cams, but at the same time, it’s not an excuse to use a stun weapon,” he said.
“I think that’s the problem with policing in the 21st century.”
Mr Hirst is a professor at Stanford Law School.
He said he thought the law would now look at whether the officer had been properly trained and what steps could be taken to prevent future incidents.
“If there is a question about whether that undercover officer did something wrong, or what other steps could have gone a little bit further to ensure they did not happen, I think we will have a look at that,” he told ABC Radio Perth.
“It is one of those things where the public’s trust has to be restored in policing.”
Mr Humphreys said he would not be surprised if the university’s Board of Governors took the issue further, as it had recently taken on the role of reviewing the use of force by the force.
“There is a whole range of issues, including the role and responsibility of the police and the use-of-force policy, and what should be done with that policy,” he explained.
“You could see that in the case of that video, which is of a police response, they took an approach to it that was not in the best interests of the officer involved.”
Mr Harrison, the law professor, said it was important that the officers wear the cameras to ensure the public did not become too complacent about the issue.
“This is not something that is going to go away.
We need to see that all of our officers are wearing them,” he noted.”
One of the issues that is so difficult is the perception that police are just out there on the street and doing their job, and the public doesn’t have a clue about that.”
The idea that the police don’t know how to properly train their officers and are not properly trained, and that’s why we need to make sure that officers are fully trained.
“The ABC understands the incident took place in November last year.
Mr Harrison said he was shocked by the footage.”
When I saw the footage of that, it shocked me,” he continued.”
So the way it was filmed, that’s exactly what I was going to say is, that is not the way the law is applied in this country.
“That is a completely different way of doing things.”
Police are trained to go into a situation, in the most difficult cases, and use the least amount of force possible, and then make a decision based on the evidence that they have.
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