“It is common practice for officers to take down car registration details, and names and addresses when policing beats, even though guidelines indicate they cannot record personal information … simply because men are in an area that is a ‘known’ beat,” he says. “We were concerned it would get back to the days when being a gay man was illegal, when police regularly harassed men at beats and used plain-clothed officers to entrap and charge men,” says project co-ordinator Richard Capuano, who regularly monitors police behaviour at his local beat in Sydney. Initiated by beat users themselves in response to increased reports of police harassment, intimidation and mistreatment of men at beats across Sydney, it now monitors beats across NSW and has forged links with beat users in South Australia. The issue of beats and beat users exploded onto the pages of Sydney’s gay and lesbian newspapers - and to the forefront of queer community consciousness - in November 2008 with the launch of the Sydney Beat Project, now called the Beat Project. The issue is dividing the gay community and stirring debate on homophobia and the role of police. A grassroots project that began with picnics aimed at monitoring police harassment of men at beats - public places where men gather to have casual, consensual sex - is expanding, despite controversial beginnings.
