Mr Caruana said the AFPA would advise any police officers who were spat on to consider charging the offender with ‘assault frontline emergency worker.’ “Queensland, NSW, South Australia, Victoria, and Western Australia have this legislation in place, so by using Mr Braddock’s logic, he should have no issues supporting this legislation,” an AFPA spokesperson said. The AFPA stated that if spit hoods are banned, they will push the Government to introduce mandatory blood and saliva testing for people who spit on or bite police officers, if not everyone who is arrested. Face shields, as the Commissioner suggested, were “impractical, unsafe, and useless”: difficult to secure, and could be used as weapons. In response, the AFPA said the Commissioner had blatantly politicised the issue, and ignored the long history of the safe use of spit hoods in policing. The ACT Human Rights Commissioner, Dr Helen Watchirs OAM, stated last month that spit hoods could constitute cruel, inhumane, and degrading treatment, and advocated the use of PPE instead. “It seems that the Greens, Australia-wide, would rather see pain compliance of people in custody when they spit or bite a police officer,” the AFPA commented on Facebook. President Ian Leavers said the ban took away an option for police to use on “the worst of the worst” henceforward, people might resort to “open or closed hand tactics” (“a smack in the mouth”) on people who spat on or bit police. “Police concerns and the dignity and safety of the Canberrans they serve can be reconciled with proportionate measures that do not risk life.”īut the Queensland Police Union of Employees opposed the ban of spit hoods, the ABC reported. Surely ACT Police can investigate alternative measures? “Queensland Police are satisfied they can protect their police officers with additional personal protective equipment (PPE), protective screens, and operational skills training. That, Mr Braddock said, showed there were “alternative ways to assist people in distress”. Spit hoods are not used at the Alexander Maconochie Centre, the Bimberi Youth Justice Centre, or the Dhulwa Mental Health Unit. ![]() Protective screens, improved practices, and personal protective equipment like face masks and shields are affordable, accessible, and effective.” ![]() “These standards are used in every other clinical and correctional care facility across the ACT, and most of Australia. “Using spit hoods is counter to evidence-based standards of communication and de-escalation to resolve violence and aggression,” the Greens MLA claimed. “Spit hoods, when used correctly by trained police officers, meet all of these requirements.”īut Mr Braddock is aghast that officers are using spit hoods on children the model used in the watch house, he noted, is the same as one implicated in at least one death in custody. “Any such barrier must be safe for all persons involved in its use be able to be secured (and not be able to be removed by the offender) be durable, hygienic, and reusable and meet a minimum manufacturing standard. ![]() “The only realistic way this can be prevented is by placing a prophylactic barrier between the arrested person and the arresting officer(s). “Biting the inside of one’s mouth and then spitting the resultant blood at arresting officers is not something which can be precluded with handcuffs,” Mr Caruana said. ![]() “These tools are applied under strict guidelines for the safety of the person in custody and police members.”Īccording to ACT Policing, before any type of restraint is used on a person in custody, police must consider the safety of the person in custody, the safety of others (including other persons in custody), threats made to expel bodily fluid, recorded history of spitting, aggressive or threatening behaviour, the likelihood of injury to any person, and the circumstances of the incident.Īs of 12 April, there are approximately 100 spit hoods in stock at the ACT Watchhouse.ĪCT Chief Police Officer Neil Gaughan stated that one was used after an arrest recently: the offender, a 16-year-old girl, allegedly refused to surrender her alcohol, bit the inside of their mouth, and spat blood at arresting officers. “Spit hoods are used to prevent AFPA members from being exposed to transmissible diseases, many of which can have an ongoing and harmful impact on a member’s health,” AFPA president Alex Caruana said. But the Australian Federal Police Association (AFPA) believes that spit hoods are a necessary safety measure, to which there is often no practical alternative banning them, they argue, would place police officers at unnecessary risk.
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