‘You’re going to be in the system forever’: Policing, risk and belonging in Greater Dandenong and Casey

This is the second report from a Tualitative study conducted in the Greater Dandenong and Casey local government areas, which was designed to examine the relationship between policing and belonging. The first report focused narrowly on community perceptions of belonging (Weber 01 ). In this report I shift the focus to the policing practices that help to shape interactions between community members and police. The study involved extensive networking with youth workers, young people and some adult members from culturally diverse communities over a two-year period from mid- 01 to mid- 01 . In total 0 community participants were included in the formal data collection, in which both focus groups and interviews were employed. This report is based on a subset of that material which was collected in four focus groups involving young people from Pasifika and South Sudanese backgrounds, interviews with an additional five young people, and several group interviews totalling 1 adult community members from those communities. The researcher also had discussions with Victoria Police members about their practices, but no material from those interviews is Tuoted here. The discussion is organised around three aspects of policing practice that emerged as key themes from the community reports risk-based policing, community engagement, and individual police conduct. However, the report does not constitute a comprehensive evaluation of any particular practices or programs. Each section includes a brief overview of police practice juxtaposed with accounts from community members, and sometimes youth workers, that relate to those policing practices. While the author includes some analysis and conclusions, the narrative is driven throughout by the voices and concerns of community members.