{"id":31845,"date":"2026-10-01T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T01:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/?post_type=oasis-news&p=31845"},"modified":"2026-10-21T11:27:26","modified_gmt":"2026-10-21T03:27:26","slug":"making-milestones-examining-police-taser-misuse-and-its-oversight-mechanisms-in-wa","status":"publish","type":"oasis-news","link":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/oasis-news\/making-milestones-examining-police-taser-misuse-and-its-oversight-mechanisms-in-wa\/","title":{"rendered":"Making Milestones: Examining police taser misuse and its oversight mechanisms in WA\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Reading time: 5 minutes<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jessikah\u2019s research into and examination of police misconduct oversight mechanisms draws from her PhD supervisor, Robert\u2019s own experience with the police, and has not been short of challenges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jessikah:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’m looking at police taser misuse in Western Australia and the accompanying oversight mechanisms. In other words: what happens when the police Taser an individual, and are there appropriate complaint mechanisms to deal with that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My research is also connected with the rule of law as an underpinning principle. Essentially, I’m trying to make the world a better place by conducting research that looks at accountability for power and transparency of decision-making.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s about making sure that police use of force is subject to effective oversight and scrutiny and that there are consequences for doing the wrong thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I came to study Law after working in Education. I completed the Bachelor of Laws and graduated on the Vice-Chancellor’s List. Following this, I undertook two post-graduate Law Degrees at Curtin Law School. I also graduated from Honours on the Vice-Chancellor’s List and received Dux of the cohort. At the same time, I completed the Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice (GDLP) as a recipient of the John Curtin Law Clinic Service Excellence scholarship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Robert supervised my Honours dissertation and encouraged me to pursue the same topic for my PhD (which is my seventh university degree). He also guided me through the process of applying for a Research Training Program (RTP) scholarship. I was ultimately successful in doing so and I’m proud that my research is being supported by the Australian Government.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

My PhD topic traverses a novel area of law, which suffers from limited publicly available data. As such, I have approached the topic creatively and by thinking outside the box and Robert has been of great assistance in this regard. In bridging the gap, I have examined coronial inquests where Tasers were used and accordingly, conducted a cross-jurisdictional analysis, so as to support the core thesis of my research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Curtin University provides excellent support for Higher Degree by Research (HDR) students. Following completion of Milestone 1, I successfully applied for a Research Engagement Grant. This was one of the highlights of my PhD journey, as I was able to use the grant to attend the Australian Public Sector Anti-corruption Commission Conference (APSACC) in Darwin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As part of APSACC, I participated in a workshop in ‘Building a Rule of Law Culture’, which allowed me to implement these principals of organisational culture in a meaningful way within my research. This was a great opportunity, which only enhanced the work I had been producing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In general, I have found completing a PhD at Curtin Law School to be a fantastic experience. My supervisors have been outstanding and this has allowed me to hone and refine my research skills.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Whilst Robert remains my principal supervisor, I have also received supervision from Associate Professor Lisa Hartley, who was the former co-director of the Centre for Human Rights Education, and Dr Steven Monterosso from the Curtin Law School. This has further benefited my research, as I have a range of perspectives from which to drawn innovative and different ideas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am known to be a bit of a perfectionist and when you undertake a PhD, you are essentially working on your own. In such circumstances, it’s easy to be your own worst critic. However, when I reflect on the research as it stood following Honours and where I am now, I feel that I have become more confident in my work and have grown as an academic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have now completed Milestone 2 and am progressing towards completion of my thesis. My success in the PhD would not have been possible without Robert’s unwavering assistance and encouragement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Robert: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Research has always, in my mind, been a fundamental aspect of my career. When universities are doing their best work,\u202fit’s\u202fwhen they are supporting human beings to be human beings. And\u202fso, putting aside the substantive content,\u202fI really think that research is a fundamental aspect of\u202fthe university experience.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You also get new insights by supervising PhD students because the whole purpose of a PhD is to create new knowledge, so it is a good way for academics to stay in touch with the discipline. Beyond all that, I’m always encouraging research students to do something they really care about, and it’s really nice to be around people who care about things. The idea of making the world a better place is something that also comes across in Jessikah’s research, and it’s nice to be part of the supervision process of that.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My supervisory style is hard but fair. I do try to bring a level of accountability into my supervisory approach, and do that in a way that gives the student the autonomy and agency to set the agenda. I think that’s the principle I come at this with\u2013it’s not my project, it’s the student’s project. Jessikah is someone who genuinely cares about the topic, but she’s got the self-discipline to do the work that needs to be done.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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For me, it’s been great to have a PhD student come along and say, I’m interested in that topic that I have a personal interest in. For someone to dedicate some time to doing work that I would be doing if I weren’t in my present role is great, just to know that you can have ideas and not be alone, that there are other people.  <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

That’s what building a community of scholars is about. You might be on your own sort of research journey, but you’ve got other people to share that load with. Because it can be quite a lonely pathway, you need to find ways of connecting with others who at least understand the process, if not the substance of what you’re going through.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Supervising projects like this is a reminder of the struggles that one goes through in research. And I learn from that myself because it reminds me that I’m not the only one who feels that way when I’m researching, because it can sometimes feel that way. Forging new pathways of ideas is a really challenging thing to do, but it’s so essential to the development of us as individuals, but also as a society.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When thinking about doing a PhD, once that seed is planted in you, I would just invite people to listen carefully and to pursue wherever that might take you, because it is a journey, but it’s also a gift you give to yourself. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Drawing from Jessikah\u2019s PhD supervisor, Robert\u2019s, own experience with the police, her research into and examination of mechanisms of oversight have not been short of challenges. With Robert\u2019s assistance, she hopes that her scrutiny of these mechanisms in her PhD thesis will encourage accountability for taser misuse. | Reading time: 5 minutes<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4495,"featured_media":32398,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"","_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"5545,5047,4723,7440,8034,4895","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","wds_primary_oasis-categories":0,"footnotes":""},"oasis-categories":[250],"class_list":["post-31845","oasis-news","type-oasis-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","oasis-categories-student-profile"],"acf":{"post_options":{"":null,"banner":{"image":false}}},"featured_image":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Oasis-43-1588x500.png","author_meta":{"first_name":"Nikita","last_name":"Arun","display_name":"Nikita Arun"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/oasis-news\/31845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/oasis-news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/oasis-news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4495"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/oasis-news\/31845\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"oasis-categories","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/oasis-categories?post=31845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}