The commonwealth and ACT ombudsman has criticised the Australian federal police for failing to clearly define “racial profiling” after police in Canberra pulled guns on an Indigenous teenager they mistook for a suspect in an aggravated burglary. The scathing investigation, released on Tuesday, made eight recommendations to the Australian federal police (AFP) and ACT Policing after investigating the November 2025 incident. ACT Policing sits under the as the community policing arm.
The 17-year-old boy, referred to by the pseudonym Jay in the ombudsman’s report, boarded a bus in Woden on the evening of 11 November 2025. ACT Police stopped the bus and three officers entered with guns drawn. After being taken off the bus at gunpoint, Jay was then brought to the ground, handcuffed and arrested, the report said.
Less than 90 seconds later, police realised their mistake. Police had mistaken him for a suspect in an aggravated burglary. Police released Jay, apologised to him and searched him.
He then got back on the bus to continue his journey. Police did not ask for his name, confirm his age, or ask for details to contact a family member, according to the ombudsman’s report. Iain Anderson, the commonwealth and ACT ombudsman, concluded that Jay was searched “inappropriately and seemingly unlawfully” after he was released from arrest.
Let’s search him anyway even though we know he’s not the person we’re looking for,’” Anderson said. But Anderson said he was concerned that the “had no clearly understood definition of ‘racial profiling’”. The teenager’s family welcomed the “comprehensive and detailed report” from the ombudsman, saying it showed serious systemic failures within the AFP.
The 17-year-old’s family said he was travelling to his aunty’s house and was “compliant and polite during the entire incident”. Anderson said the use of “Aboriginal” as a physical descriptor was unhelpful and relied on the use of an “outdated, stereotypical physical trait”. He acknowledged ACT Policing were responding to a fast-evolving incident but concluded there were opportunities to improve the force’s engagement with First Nations communities and their aftercare of “innocent people who are caught up in their actions”.
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