APEC 2007
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APEC 2007
APEC 2007 was a meeting in Sydney of leaders from over 20 countries and it involved the largest policing operation for many years.
Water canon
Policing protests in Sydney oftens involves specialised riot squads and equipment. Pictured are two police officers standing in front of a water cannon purchased for the Public Order and Riot Squad at a cost of $650,000. The cannon has never been used (except for display purposes).
Paramilitary discipline
A police officer refusing to speak to a reporter from The Australian newspaper. Part of the drift towards "paramilitary policing" is the suspension of the idea that police officers are "citizens in uniform." Instead, they adopt paramilitary discipline, which involves operating in packs to arrest people, as well as refusing to talk to individuals. An Australian academic who has specialised in this area is Dr Jude McCulloch.
Surveillance
Police surveillance is routine at protests in Sydney. Surveillance consists of photography, video and CCTV. In the lead up to protests, the telephones and emails of individual activists are intercepted. We know about the phone and email interceptions as they have later been used as part of the prosecution evidence against individual protesters in court cases where the protesters are routinely acquitted. Here, a police video operator is using a video camera in order to intimidate the person taking the photograph.
Police refuse to wear ID
Human Rights Monitors took photos of over 200 police officers who had either refused to wear their identification badges or took them off during the protest. Following widespread media coverage, the matter was referred to Professional Standards, an office within NSW Police. No police officers were disciplined as a result of what appeared to be a coordianted flouting of internal police requirements to be wearing identifiication while in uniform. Police Commissioner Scipione suggested that some police may have removed their badges because they were afraid that the badges would be taken off individual officers and then be used to "stab" them with the needle on the back of each badge. During Parliamentary Committee questioning and by way of subsequent research, neither the Police Minister nor the Police Commissioner was able to cite a single assault against a police officer using a police badge.
If you have nothing to hide...
Many police officers refused to be photographed, either by obstructing photographers or threatening people with arrest. Articles by mainstream journalists after APEC said that there was a systematic strategy of stopping people photographing arrests and protester/police interactions.
A Report into APEC Policing was published by the NSW Community Legal Centres and Kingsford Legal Centre in July 2008.