1. New South Wales Police
Department
Catherine Bauerlein

2. Background History
• Their roots date back to 1789
• Currently operate under Police Act of 1990
• Headquarted in Parramatta, New South Wales
• Comparable to the size of Texas
• Around 20,000 employees
• 500 police stations
• 30 languages

3. Services
• Monitor and promote road safety
• Maintain social order
• Perform and coordinate emergency rescue
operations
• Traffic control
• Intelligence analysis
• Anti-terrorist negotiations

4. The Crisis
• March 18, 2012 Roberto LaudisioCurti stole two
packets of biscuits from a store
• Police handcuffed him, used three cans of
pepper spray, batons and tasered him 14 times
• Pronounced dead at the scene

5. Crisis Details
• Curti had taken a dose of LSD the day before the
incident and was having an adverse reaction
• Was said to be paranoid and have “super human
strength”
• Police were told he was armed even though he
was unarmed

6. Crisis Details
• Police said he was violently resisting arrest
• Police did not place him in recovery position
• Taser was ruled out for cause of death
• Death could be because of the way he was
positioned; could not breathe properly

7. Organizational Response
• New South Wales police have very active social
media pages but do not address this incident
• No press releases
• No news conference
• No mention in their Police Monthly magazine
• No mention in the media archive
• Only quoted in articles
▫ Deny unjust actions
▫ No statements of remorse

8. Media Response
• Local newspapers published numerous articles
detailing the incident and trial updates
• Worldwide (Huffington Post and ABC Online)
also featured the story
• Empathetic quotes from family and the
assistance to the counsel in articles
• Articles state facts from all parties but tone
favors the victim and his family

9. Stakeholder Response
• Public is using Youtube, Facebook, Petition and
Twitter to voice opinions online
▫ Videos and comment sections
▫ Constant Twitter updates from journalists and
supporters of the family
• Family allowed the video release of Curti being
tasered and dying
• Facebook and Twitter pages both created for his
justice
• A petition to reform taser policy targeting NSW
police has over 4,000 signatures

10. Stakeholder Response
• Protest held in Brazil on steps of Australian
consulate branding police as cowards
• Online conversations are judgmental and hateful
toward police
• Demanding a policy reform

11. Recommendations
• Desperate need for transparency
• Police need to offer more condolences
• Need to decide on tactics to voice their story and
justify their actions
▫ Seem more personable
• Police is ignoring the situation altogether and
makes them appear guilty and remorseless
• Need to work on communication: Unarmed vs
armed and arrest tactics