Police unlawfully stormed Aboriginal houses after riot

BRISBANE - Police unlawfully stormed houses on Palm Island after last year's riot, an inquiry by Queensland's crime watchdog has found.

In a report released by Police Commissioner Bob Atkinson today, the Crime and Misconduct Commission (CMC) said heavily armed officers did not have the power to burst into the homes in the Aboriginal community after the riot in November last year.

Under the Public Safety Preservation Act 1986, police should not have entered and searched the private houses because the riots had ended and there was no longer a state of emergency, the report stated.

However, the CMC said it could not substantiate allegations police had assaulted residents when they stormed the houses.

One resident accused police of hitting him with a Taser stun gun and a baton, while another alleged police had said they, "could kill them and no-one would know what happened to them".

The report did not find any grounds for disciplinary action against the officers involved.

The watchdog has recommended Police Special Emergency Response Team (SERT) officers wear some form of identification, and called for a review of their use of handcuffs on people not identified as suspects.

The identities of SERT officers who handcuffed innocent residents, who subsequently complained to the CMC and sparked the inquiry, have not been made public.

Commissioner Atkinson today said he did not agree with the CMC's finding relating to police powers under the Public Safety Preservation Act.

"But I acknowledge that this is a matter that will be considered in the context of current court proceedings," Mr Atkinson said.

Police reinforcements were flown to the island, off the Townsville coast in central Queensland, after its police station and adjoining courthouse were burnt to the ground with a petrol bomb during the riot by up to 300 angry residents.

Of the 17 to 18 homes searched by police the day after the riots, 12 offenders were nabbed but no offenders were found at five of the dwellings stormed, the CMC's report found.

The riots followed the release of an autopsy of Cameron Doomadgee, 36, who died in police custody from a punctured lung.

- AAP