Western Australian police commissioner Chris Dawson says many in youth detention could be dealt with via community justice

Western Australian police commissioner Chris Dawson says the “vast volume” of Aboriginal children who are charged with a criminal offence could be dealt with through community justice arrangements and not end up in custody.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in Western Australia are 27 times more likely to be put under youth justice supervision than non-Indigenous children, second only to the Northern Territory where every child in custody is Aboriginal.

In an interview with Guardian Australia, Dawson said many children that currently face youth detention could be dealt with in a community justice arrangement, similar to a new model being trialled in the Kimberley community of Bidyadanga, 185km south of Broome.

There, young people face justice in the form of hearing the hurt caused by their actions in a community gathering under the lore tree. The arrangement is supported by both police and elders.

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“I strongly support these approaches, rather than truck or fly a young person to be remanded in custody some 2,000km south, taken off country, taken away from their parents and carers and their community, and expect that they’re going to come back better people for it,” Dawson said.

“Clearly if there are persons in custody that have committed very serious offences … then I am not saying that it would never be a case that a young person may have to be kept in custody.

“But there’s a vast volume of them where it does not make any sense to take them away from country, but that doesn’t mean taking away justice.”

Dawson said it was part of a broader push to address why Aboriginal children who are found by police to be breaking the law are more likely to end up in court than non-Indigenous children, who are more likely to be placed in a diversionary program.

“I don’t think there’s systemic racism,” he said. “I’m not at all saying it’s a totally free zone in terms of any elements of racism … but I would not characterise it and nor does the [cultural safety audit conducted last year] characterise it as systemic.

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“We know there are elements of racism, and I have taken action against officers that have been racist and one very recently is no longer in the force.”

He said the push to raise the age of criminal responsibility from the current age of 10 was a “subject of current discussion” with the government.

But he defended a decision not to classify the death of Aboriginal woman Cherdeena Wynne, who died in hospital in April, as a death in custody or a death in police presence, which would trigger a mandatory inquest.

“I don’t have any information before me to say that she was in custody,” Dawson said. “The deceased person was certainly not arrested.”

He said the final determination on the classification, cause and circumstances of Wynne’s death would be a matter for the state coroner, and he believed they would decide to hold a public inquest.

“The fact that police are in attendance should not connote that the death of a person is connected to police attendance,” he said.

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Police were called to help ambulance officers find Wynne after she jumped out of an ambulance following a self-harm attempt on 4 April and placed her in handcuffs, according to a police statement following her death, to “prevent injury to herself and emergency services”. She then lost consciousness and was un-cuffed while police and paramedics tried to revive her but she died five days later.

Dawson was appointed commissioner in 2017 .

He made a formal apology last July for historic wrongs done to Aboriginal people by police and last week launched the organisation’s first ever reconciliation action plan, which included a promise to fly the Aboriginal flag outside every police facility in the state.