Homeless Australians say police checks are often intrusive, pervasive, and unnecessary, with First Nations people experiencing higher rates of brutality, a new study claims.

Researchers, who interviewed 164 homeless people across all eight Australian capital cities and two regional cities, said many complained they felt constantly under surveillance, with police run-ins a near daily occurrence that often left them in more dangerous situations.

Dr Thalia Anthony, a UTS Law professor who led the study, said the homeless were not only concerned with physical actions by police but regarded even casual interactions as harassing.

“They felt one of the biggest incursions on their safety and on their freedom… was policing,” she said.

“What concerned the people was… that they were under constant surveillance and that they could, at any time, slip up and find themselves in a more coercive situation.”

The paper ‘Hyper-policing the Homeless’, published in the journal Critical Criminology, said constant attention by the police reinforced homeless peoples’ status as ‘urban outcasts’ and created a conveyor belt to the prison system.

Homelessness increased in Australia by 5.2 per cent between 2016 and 2021, with 20 per cent of homeless Australians from First Nations backgrounds. Studies have shown that most homeless people have had encounters with police, and over half have spent time in prison.

For First Nations homeless people the consequences of a police encounter were more severe, the study found. First Nations people experience homelessness at a rate six times higher than the general Australian population and described police violence against them as “brute force”.

If they do get a criminal record, it’s harder to get a job, it’s harder to get a rental property. It not only… has a social-emotional effect, it can have really serious long-term economic impacts.

Professor Anthony said First Nations homeless people were more likely to recount instances of physical harm and express fear of dying in custody. One woman described to researchers an incident in which police beat her and broke her fingers while she was in custody.

Aggressive questioning, identification checks, move-on orders, use of force, and charges regardless of criminal wrongdoing were common themes across the interviews. An interviewee complained about the frequent order to move-on, often late at night and into unfamiliar areas.

“If you can imagine someone finally finding somewhere safe out of the cold and out of the breeze to sleep, and then being moved along by the police for no reason,” they said.

They added they received frequent public nuisance and public disorder charges, just for being homeless.

“They’d be fined for public nuisance or public disorder… and then that would prohibit their chances of getting access to housing because they’ve just got all this debt to pay off,” Professor Anthony said.

“It would also mean if they do get a criminal record, it’s harder to get a job, it’s harder to get a rental property. So, it not only… has a social-emotional effect, it can have really serious long-term economic impacts.”

NSW Police said they aim to support people experiencing homelessness through “a combination of enforcement and outreach”.

“In accordance with the Protocol for Homeless People in Public Places, police work with council and non-government organisations and local services to support and divert individuals experiencing homelessness,” a statement said.

We are investing in housing. Those houses just happen to be prisons… it is about shifting those priorities from prison housing to social housing.

“While no charges have been laid solely due to homelessness, individuals experiencing homelessness have been charged in relation to other offences at times.”

The paper contends housing justice, rather than more policing is required, with the homeless expressing a complete loss of trust with policing, and a desire to see the police defunded or diluted.

“The answer is not some normal level of policing or better policing – but freedom from policing,” one told researchers.

Professor Anthony said reallocating resources away from policing and prisons and towards social housing will lead to better living standards for homeless individuals. Last week a homeless man asked a judge to jail him for two years so he could have access to housing when he got out.

Professor Anthony points to the reallocation of resources to house homeless people during the COVID-19 pandemic as proof that immediate systemic change is possible.

“If you look at COVID, they wanted to get homeless people off the streets to reduce the spread, and there was a very quick turnaround. There was a moral panic and attention shifted towards housing, so it’s very possible,” she said.

“We are investing in housing. Those houses just happen to be prisons. On prisons we spend billions of dollars a year. So, it is about shifting those priorities from prison housing to social housing.” 

Photo by Kylie De Guia on Unsplash