The ACT's chief police officer does not believe there were systemic cultural issues within the police which predicated the racist and inappropriate comments by his officers captured on a recording device inside Civic Police Station.
Deputy Commissioner Neil Gaughan said that while he was limited by what he could say about the inflammatory incident because of an internal police investigation, "racist, sexist and inappropriate comments have no place in ACT Policing and it falls well short of what is expected by me, and what is expected by the community".
His comments follow the playing of a recording in the ACT Magistrates Court last Friday in which officers mocked Asian accents and laughed while watching videos showing a man's genitals and making derogatory comments like "that is a f---ing tiny dick".
The recording was played as a 23-year-old Chinese national, Junqi Huang, faced the court on charges of attempting intimate observations or attempting to capture visual data in an invasion of privacy. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Police allege that Mr Huang placed a device in a shower inside a shared bathroom at the Australian National University in June 2020.
Some of the footage filmed prior to police seizing the device as evidence showed a man alleged to be Mr Huang placing it in numerous locations and appearing to test it, on some occasions exposing his genitals.
After police took possession of the device, they were apparently unaware it was still recording while back at the station.
Little can be seen on the device because the video camera was wrapped within the rubber glove in which it had been seized but from the audio, police officers can be heard laughing and saying things like "it's penis time", "I have a micro penis" and "you've got me hard, bro" as they watched videos from the device.
One of them was captured saying "he so Asian" while seeming to put on an accent.
Deputy Commissioner Gaughan said that he was "not naive enough [to understand] that from time to time these types of issues will raise their head".
"And when they do, we need to jump on any behaviour which is racist or sexist behaviour or inappropriate conduct - and when we see it, we'll take action," he said.
"Obviously our officers fundamentally have to hold up humans rights and we expect people to respect others as they go about their daily business."
The police officers' ribald and racist commentary drew a strong reaction from Mr Huang's solicitor Peter Woodhouse, who described their remarks as "totally unacceptable".
"It suggests there is an insidious problem in the [Australian Federal Police] that needs to be addressed immediately," Mr Woodhouse said.
"The fact that officers were clearly standing around, laughing and vilifying a young suspect is outrageous."
