The NT Police Association has backed the use of spit hoods and restraint chairs on children as a safety measure, amid Indigenous groups criticising their use as a “draconian brutalisation of kids” and despite the Gunner Government agreeing to scrap their use following recommendations from the royal commission into youth detention.

Data released by NT Police this week revealed that the use of spit hoods on children in police watch houses across the NT has never stopped, with the restraints having been used 27 times over the past four years.

The NT Government banned spit hoods and restraint chairs for detainees in youth detention in 2016, following shocking footage showing their use in Darwin’s Don Dale youth detention centre that made international news.

However, the NTPA said that spit hoods needed to be used to protect officers from “being exposed to communicable diseases which can have a long-lasting impact on a member’s health”.

The union says while officers are mandated to observe a maximum tolerance when executing their duties, the use of restraint chairs and spit hoods are “a last resort” and are implemented under strict guidelines for the safety of the person in custody and the member.

NT Police Association vice-president Lisa Bayliss said the NTPA fully “supported” the use of spit hoods and restraint chairs as a workplace health and safety precaution.

“Police officers are wives, husbands, partners and parents. If they are spat on by an offender, they need to have a blood test to establish if a communicable disease has been contracted,” Ms Bayliss said.

She added that during the wait time for the test results of a communicable disease, the police officer can’t kiss their own children for fear of passing on a disease, “causing significant stress on their personal lives”.

Ms Bayliss said that if a person is violent or self-harming, police have an obligation by law to keep themselves and others safe.

“Brutalisation of kids is draconian: like going back to the dark ages”: Law professor

Spit hoods are a mesh-fabric hood designed for restraint that conceal the face and are generally fixed at the base with a band around the neck. In theory, they’re used to protect corrections workers from being spat on or bitten.

Latoya Aroha Rule, a research associate at Jumbunna Institute and sibling of Wayne Fella Morrison, a 29-year-old indigenous man who lost consciousness and later died following restraint in a spit hood in 2016, said that asphyxiation from the use of spit hoods is a common issue that occurs in cases of Indigenous deaths in custody.

“There is no appropriate or safe way to use a spit hood. Spit hoods pose an unacceptable risk to human life and dignity,” Ms Rule told NITV.

“Amnesty (International) have found that spit hoods violate the UN Convention Against Torture, yet their use continues on children, especially in the NT today. This has to end – and the only way to secure this is to ban spit hoods by law. We cannot risk another life.”

According to The Guardian Australia’s “Deaths Inside” feature, which tracks every known Indigenous death in custody in every jurisdiction from 2008 – to 2021, at least 474 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have died in custody since the end of the royal commission into Aboriginal deaths in custody in 1991.

Eddie Cubillo, a Larrakia man and Associate Dean of Indigenous Programs at Melbourne Law School, who worked on the youth detention royal commission back in 2017, told NITV News on Tuesday that it was “criminal” and “brutalisation” for the government to be forcing spit hoods on children.

“The Chief Minister Michael Gunner referred to the treatment of young people in detention as a ‘stain on the Northern Territory’s reputation’ that he would seek to address,” said Mr Cubillo.

“[But] the government is reneging on the commitment by continuing to do these practices even though there is a recommendation not to do so anymore.

“All research says that the brutalisation of kids is draconian and it’s basically like going back to the dark ages and will only make matters worse in regards to their rehabilitation and them getting back to community.”

In a statement, NT Minister for Police, Nicole Manison defended the police force’s use of spit hoods and restraint chairs, saying that there’s a distinction between the appropriateness of the restraint’s use in different situations.

“It’s very important to differentiate between police custody (the watch house) and youth detention (i.e. Don Dale),” a statement from her office said.

“The police watch house is a short-term place of custody, whereas a detention centre is a long-term facility.

“When a (child) first enters police custody through the watch house they are in their most heightened and emotional state, this can result in very dangerous, confronting and sometimes threatening behaviour, including acts of genuine self-harm.”

Mr Cubillo told NITV the statement from the Police Minister was “laughable” and questioned whether the spit hood and restraint chair policies in the NT were “racist” towards Indigenous people.

“It’s against their basic human rights as children… as a 10-year-old that’s getting a hood chucked on their head and left in the dark basically for extended periods,” he said.

“It goes against all basic human rights, not only for adults… but for children.

“And if you want to have a look at the numbers in the Northern Territory, most juvenile in detention are Indigenous… and sometimes it can be up to 100 per cent.

“So one could question whether this is a racial practice.”