Image: Sue Higginson MLA has led calls for the parliamentary inquiry. Photo: Sue Higginson/Facebook.
By ROBBIE MASON
The family of a Newcastle woman tragically killed by specialist tactical officers have criticised the reaction of the state’s police force. Now supporters are calling for a parliamentary inquiry into NSW Police responses to vulnerable people, following a spate of fatal interactions between civilians and police officers across the state recently.
Last week, NSW Police tasered and shot a 47 year old woman in Newcastle, Krista Kach, who was allegedly undergoing a mental health crisis, following a 9 hour stand-off. Police attended the site due to reports Kach was threatening people with an axe.
Kach later died at hospital. A supposedly non-lethal ammunition fired from a shotgun – a bean bag round – had penetrated her body and hit her heart.
Greens MP and spokesperson for justice Sue Higginson has called on the government to support a parliamentary inquiry into NSW Police responses to vulnerable people.
Higginson said, “it’s hard to fathom the extent to which our system has failed Krista and her family.”
Police denied the requests of the woman’s family for medical help prior to forcibly entering her Newcastle unit. They also barred Krista Kach’s daughter from talking to her during the stand-off – a move the family claim could have saved her life.
Krista Kach livestreamed the incident for hours within a dark room. Her family shared that footage with Higginson.
“The four and half hours of video footage shows a system that fails vulnerable people.”
“I cannot unsee what I have seen. A woman in her own home who was not being a threat to anyone, alone and clearly experiencing some form of psychosis, was relentlessly pursued and tormented by a large number of heavily armed police officers on her property,” Higginson stated.
Richard Horsley, Assistant Coordinator at Justice Action, said, “Krista Kach’s name is just the latest in a shameful and tragic litany.”
“Unless changes are made to how the state responds to mental health crises it will happen again and again.”
Horsley expressed support for the call by Sue Higginson MLC and Krista Kach’s family for a full inquiry into her death.
Critics question police mental health training
NSW Police have attracted intense public scrutiny from concerned citizens and advocacy organisations over their handling of mental health incidents in recent months and accountability issues relating to internal police investigations and media tactics.
In June this year, internal emails, obtained by the Australian Associated Press under Freedom of Information laws, revealed that NSW Police had watered down key details in a press release about the tasering of 95 year old Clare Nowland in Cooma in May.
The tasering left Clare Nowland in a critical condition. She died a week after the incident.
Also in June, a former police officer told the Sydney Morning Herald that NSW Police had scrapped an award-winning four day training program, which provided instruction on interacting with civilians experiencing mental health crises, without introducing an adequate replacement course.
Higginson stated, “the police are not equipped to deal with such situations; that’s why we keep seeing vulnerable people killed at the hands of police. Police responses and protocols escalate situations because they are driven by capture, custody and punishment.”
“None of these outcomes were appropriate or required to deal with Krista.”
“Police could see she was unarmed. She told them consistently for hours on end that she was safe,” Higginson continued.
Questioning the use of tasers and bean bag rounds on Krista Kach, Horsley accused NSW police officers of having a pattern of “inappropriate behaviour and ill-treatment towards mentally ill individuals.”
In crisis situations, “officers often demonstrate a lack of understanding”, Horsley said.
The state’s police watchdog, the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission (LECC), released a report in May this year that found mental health training in the force is “extremely limited”. The vast majority of police officers in NSW undertake one sole day of mental health training during their 16 week initiation.
The report found that the NSWPF Mental Health Intervention Team was woefully understaffed, limiting the delivery of the award-winning four day course to 300 officers per year. As a result, only 2420 officers completed the program between February 2008 and September 2019, when the program was axed.
According to the NSWPF Annual Report 2021-2022, there were 17,659 officers employed at the time of publication.
Mental health intervention teams overwhelmed
Horsley from Justice Action said that underfunded mental health intervention teams are ill-placed to help those enduring severe psychological episodes.
Community-based mental health programs such as the Mental Health Acute Assessment Team (MHAAT), which assists people in Western Sydney, and crisis assessment and treatment teams (CATTs), attached to major local hospitals, all face “a similar struggle”, Horsley said.
“They are unable to cope with the high levels of demand, hence offering inadequate advice or referring consumers to police services.”
“How many more families will be mourning before the system is fixed?” Mr Horsley asked.
