Victoria Police are facing accusations of racial profiling after new data showed Aboriginal people were 15 times more likely to be searched than Caucasian people, as legal groups argue it shows the issue is far greater than 'a few bad apples".

Data obtained by the Racial Profiling Data Monitoring Project (RPDMP) through Freedom of Information requests found that, in 2024, Victoria Police were 10 times more likely to use force against a person they perceived as Aboriginal than someone they perceived as White, and 10.6 times more likely to use force against a woman they perceived as Aboriginal than a woman they perceived as White.

The data also showed police were 13 times more likely to use Tasers on Aboriginal people than on White people, 23.7 times more likely to initiate a police pursuit of someone they perceived to be African than someone they perceived to be White, and almost six times more likely to use a Taser on a Pacific Islander than a White person.

"As the search find rates for all groups is less than one in four searches, this over-policing (over-sampling) is evidence of both systemic racism in Victoria Police practices and systematic racial profiling," the report said.

Dr Tamar Hopkins, Founder of the RPDMP, told National Indigenous Times the rate of searches and use of force against Aboriginal people is "getting worse, not getting better".

She noted that despite Victoria's focus on policing of First Nations people since the police commissioner apologised at the Yoorrook truth-telling hearings in 2023, "all the data points are showing things are going in the reverse direction of where they should be".

"This really identifies that there is no focus by Victoria Police on reducing its disproportionate attention on First Nations and other racialised communities in Victoria," Dr Hopkins said.

Victoria Police officially banned racial profiling in 2015 after settling a case involving alleged profiling of African-Australian men, becoming the first police force in Australia to formally define and prohibit the practice.

In 2023, then-Chief Commissioner Shane Patton appeared before the Yoorrook Justice Commission and apologised to First Nations people in Victoria for "police actions that have caused or contributed to the trauma experienced by so many Aboriginal families in our jurisdiction".

This is RPDMP's second data release. Dr Hopkins said she hoped to see "improvement in these disproportionality rates", but instead the trend is "going backward".

"So it's really crying out for some attention that something's done about this," she said.

Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service CEO Nerita Waight said the report reinforces longstanding concerns from Indigenous communities: "Abuses of power and discrimination against Aboriginal people by Victoria Police is not the case of 'a few bad apples'."

"This is something that continues to happen systemically and excessively," she told National Indigenous Times. "These rates are astonishing, and the report highlights Victoria Police members continue to engage in disturbing racist policing practices with little accountability and no independent oversight."

Under the law, police may only search a person if they have a suspicion, based on reasonable grounds, that the individual is carrying a contraband item; unless the location is classified as a designated place or a Firearms Protection Order is in effect (neither of which was recorded in the report).

The report notes, "Uniform police perform the vast majority of searches without warrant". Less than one in five 'reasonable grounds' searches carried out by police result in a find.

The lowest performing groups for 'hit rates' (the number of finds) are the Criminal Investigation Unit (CIU) — colloquially known as 'detective' or plain-clothed police — Crime, Divisional Response Unit (DRU) and Uniform branches. In 2022, the DRU had a search hit rate of 7.9 per cent.

Dr Hopkins argues that whilst the media coverage of crime and the calls — backed by some sections of the media — to give police more powers largely focuses on combating violence at protests and to disrupt gangs, the data shows it is the "everyday policing" units routinely engaged in these searches.

"It's in everyday policing where we see the disproportionate targeting as for searches of First Nations people and being carried on to disproportionate targeting for use of force, and that that wouldn't be coincidental," she says.

In response, a Victoria Police spokesperson stated: "Victoria Police has zero tolerance towards racial profiling."

"Our officers are trained to police in response to a person's behaviour, not their background," they said.

The report noted that nearly 17 per cent of police search records lacked ethnic appearance data, despite this being mandatory. 12.5 per cent of Use of Force Data is also missing ethnic appearance, the report added. Victoria Police disputed this, saying that while ethnicity must be recorded in field contact reports, it is not required for all searches.

"Assertions made in this research are incorrect," a spokesperson said. "It is not mandatory for police to record ethnic appearance information when conducting all searches."

They added that with the move to electronic recording, failing to record ethnicity on required forms should no longer be possible.

"It appears this has been confused with the requirement when police are making a field contact report," the spokesperson said.

"This is when they have obtained details from someone they suspect has committed or is about to commit an offence or may be able to assist with the investigation of an indictable offence."

The report categorised all use-of-force incidents, including both actual and threatened force, and applied the same approach to weapon use such as Tasers and pepper spray.

"For Tasers, this includes when members draw their device but it's never actually discharged. This is the case in close to nine out of every 10 incidents involving Tasers," the spokesperson said.