Police are strip searching, taunting and photographing Indigenous youth “when they apparently have done nothing wrong”, the manager of a north-west Queensland community centre has alleged.

In her submission to a Queensland Productivity Commission inquiry into reoffending, Mount Isa Neighbourhood Centre manager Chris Connors called for better cultural awareness training for police she believed were racially profiling Indigenous youth.

Police are accused of racially profiling Indigenous youth in Mount Isa. Credit:Robert Shakespeare

Ms Connors wrote there were “many” reports from her clients of negative interactions with police.

They included police “engaging with them when they apparently have done nothing wrong, photographing them, pushing them face-down on the ground, stripping/searching them, taunting them and only turning on body-cams when they react, taking their phones if/when they try to film the interactions”.