Saturday, 15 June 2002

A councillor in Australia’s most culturally diverse local government area has labelled the latest Police recruitment TV commercial ‘offensive’ for its stereotypical portrayal of the police force and ethnic communities.

The 90-second reality-TV style commercial portrays police in confronting situations and according to Police Minister, Michael Costa cost $1m to produce.

Fairfield Councillor Thang Ngo said the commercial "used every negative racial stereotype in the book".

Not one of the 20 or so Police Officers in the commercial appeared to come from a non-English speaking background and definitely not one came from an Asian background according to Cr Ngo.

"However, the ‘baddies’ and the victims were obviously from an ethnic background" he said.

"The most offensive part of the ad is the depiction of a youth, obviously from an Arabic-speaking background caught by police for carrying a knife.

Ngo said depicting predominantly Anglo-Celtic men as good guys in the form of Police officers and the baddies as Arabic youth was extremely cultural insensitive and will only help to drive a greater wedge between police and ethnic communities.

"It’s no wonder Police have trouble attracting ethnic recruits" he said.

According to the Police annual report, the number of ethnic police officers make up just 1.7% of the 13,600 strong NSW police force. And, even from this small base, the number of ethnic police has been steadily declining.

"The ethnic communities are sick of only being depicted as criminals and victims, this ad is particularly offensive because our taxes are being used to play up negative racial stereotypes" Cr Ngo concluded.

While the Police Minister said in Parliament the ad has attracted strong interest from potential recruits, my fear is that it may be attracting those who subscribe to these false and divisive racial stereotypes.

Kangaroos don’t skip down George Street, Sydney and ethnics are not all criminals. Cr Ngo called on the Police Commissioner to withdraw the commercial immediately.