Experiential learning with the police force

As part of developing closer links between the Law School and Leichhardt Local Area Command (LAC), police officers acted as witnesses as part of a special moot court exercise with students enrolled in the undergraduate and Juris Doctor elective unit of study, ‘Advanced Evidence’. 

“Two of the matters involved domestic violence, and the third was an assault of a police officer.”

Students were assigned one of three cases and divided into prosecution and defence teams.

“Students really enjoyed putting their knowledge of evidence law into practice with real police officers,” said convenor and senior lecturer, Ms Miiko Kumar (LLB ’95 BA ’94). 

“Two of the matters involved domestic violence, and the third was an assault of a police officer.” 

“The exercise provided students with invaluable experiential learning. The students performed extremely well and I was proud of them.”

"Inspector Gary Coffey, Constable" "Jacqueline Buchanan and Constable Adam Dawes took part. The three police officers were examined and cross-examined by the students."

"This gave the students an opportunity to" "interact with police officers about how they investigate matters and prepare briefs of evidence." 

Dr Garner Clancey (MCrim ’00" "PhD(Research) ’14), from the Law School’s Institute of Criminology, said the initiative grew out of discussions with senior police within LAC in relation to the need for junior police to acquire more experience in appearing in the 'witness box'.

“This means that they get less exposure to courtroom procedures and being cross-examined,” he says. 

“I think there are numerous benefits to flow from having police and law students engage in this manner. 

“Both get some applied, practical experience of practicing what they will need in their professions. They also become a little more familiar with the perspectives of different players in the criminal justice system, which helps build insight.” 

The initiative received great feedback from all parties and there are plans to run the exercise again and expand it to other units of study. 

“From my perspective, I think that it was interesting for students to learn that the main crime that police respond to is domestic violence,” said Ms Kumar. 

“It was also fantastic to hear from positive, committed and energetic police officers.”