These 12 Indigenous Aussies Want To Be The New Faces Of Policing

"We need really strong-minded willed Aboriginal people in uniform".

The faces below could be a part of the next generation of NSW cops - a generation that may finally bridge the gap between police and the Indigenous community.

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The Indigenous Police Recruitment Our Way Delivery (IPROWD) program, designed to meet the NSW government's target of having 1000 Indigenous police officers over 10 years, has welcomed the latest crop of prospective officers.

12 students will go through an intensive 18-week TAFE course to give them the entry requirements to study an associate degree in policing practice at university, which then opens the gates to the police academy.

"There’s been over 300 participants since it started and around 70 people are on the journey to enlisting," David Roberts from TAFE NSW tells BuzzFeed News.

"One of the biggest impacts of IPROWD is that not only are we actively creating a better relationship between the police and the Aboriginal community, but we are also seeing more Aboriginal people in the police force identifying as Indigenous. Before, a lot of them were afraid to say they were black".

Koori man Shane Shannon, 25, joined the IPROWD program to foster better relations between the Indigenous community and the police.

"It’s very important to have Aboriginal police. Diversity of any kind is important. As an Indigenous officer, you can relate to people and that exposure as an officer will help the community realise we are human and there to help," Shannon says.

IPROWD was the concept of Aboriginal man Peter Gibbs, whose sister Fiona Gibbs died in police custody in 1997.

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Instead of rioting, as many people wanted him to do, Gibbs vowed that his sister's death would not be in vain and lobbied for more Indigenous police officers to prevent future deaths in custody.

"I've got the vision that in 20 years' time in western NSW we'll have a police force dominated by Aboriginal people. Now wouldn't that be something," Gibbs told the ABC in 2011.

Historically the relationship between the Indigenous community and the police force has been fraught and tense.

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"We need Aboriginal people represented in the police to help us deal with community issues and build up rapport with the Aboriginal communities that we need to police better," IPROWD Police Coordinator Sergeant Kim Mills Tells BuzzFeed News.

The royal commission into Aboriginal deaths in custody in 1991 found abhorrent levels of institutionalised racism within the police force and that distrust still lingers today as the rate of black deaths in police custody has steadily climbed since the commission.

Roberts, who will guide the students through the next 18 weeks, says that the course is not just about getting people in uniform, it's about people who will actively change the system.

"We need really strong-minded, strong-willed Aboriginal people in uniform. It’s so easy to put on a uniform and become part of that police culture that doesn’t represent the Aboriginal community," Roberts says.

"We need aboriginal people in decision-making positions standing up for the community".