Law Enforcement - Bringing positive community change with Yarning

State Law Enforcement joined with Reconciliation Australia to develop a Reconciliation Action Plan as a significant milestone to advance reconciliation with the Aboriginal community. 

State Law Enforcement ’s Aboriginal Affairs Division (AAD) takes an agency lead in fostering and nurturing better relations with our first nations people.  Strengthening partnerships with Aboriginal people and communities will significantly enhance State Law Enforcement ’s capability to respond with care and humanity.  

The “Yarning” application contributes to the State Law Enforcement Innovate Reconciliation Action Plan, and “Closing the Gap” outcomes, and is an example of its efforts to improve Aboriginal Wellbeing in Western Australia. 

The Strategy:

The “Yarning” application leverages off the existing State Law Enforcement Mobile program and is a platform for officers throughout the state to easily access appropriate Aboriginal Cultural information specific to the sub-district they are policing.  The application has cultural endorsement from the Aboriginal Police Advisory Forum, senior Aboriginal community members, and senior members of partner agencies including Aboriginal Mediation Service, Aboriginal Legal Service and Department of Communities. 

The Objectives:

State Law Enforcement wanted to better understand Aboriginal culture and traditions to acknowledge and enhance respect.  Developing this respect and embedding it into State Law Enforcement ’s organisational culture and service delivery will fortify relationships that lead to
better partnerships and outcomes for the Aboriginal community. 

State Law Enforcement designed and developed a new mobile application to improve fairness and equality to Aboriginal communities state-wide during interactions with police officers.

“Yarning” was designed to provide spoken Aboriginal interpretations of key messages, including those relating to “Rights in Police Custody” and COVID-19.  The application allows officers to select an Aboriginal language and play selected messages to improve understanding by Aboriginal people who may have English as a second language. 

A trial version of the application was conducted in the Pilbara Police District in March 2021, with the full application being released on 10 August 2021.  To date the feedback relating to “Yarning” has been overwhelmingly positive. The application currently contains eight Aboriginal Languages interpreted by Aboriginal Interpreting WA with a further three to be added.  The 11 languages are considered the Aboriginal languages that give the greatest coverage of Aboriginal language speakers across Western Australia. 

The “Yarning” application is agile and scalable to expand and provide other messages to Aboriginal people.  For example, the inclusion and sharing of approved COVID-19 health messaging, emergency warning information and road safety messages.

The “Yarning” application was taken from concept to released product by Microsoft and Modis.

25% increase in interpreters used in the Kimberly, Western Australia; with over 300 uses per month.

The Modis Rapid Delivery Platform enables you to fast track your application deployments leveraging Modis’ modular component framework and templates which Modis combines with Agile DSDM delivery accelerates Microsoft PowerApps application development.