Critical Incident (ATOM Study Guide)

A police critical incident arises when a member of the police force, while in the execution of their duties, is involved in the death or serious injury of themselves, or another person. 

On the beat in plain clothes, Senior Constable Zilficar (Zil) Ahmed clocks teenager Dalia Tun, who matches the description of a suspect wanted for assaulting a police officer. He approaches. She runs. He chases her onto a busy train platform. There is chaos and confusion over the sight of a brown man pursuing a teenage girl. Someone yells ‘gun!’ and Zil dodges an object thrown at him, which in doing so, knocks a schoolboy onto the tracks. A train approaches … 

Catastrophes like this don’t happen to Zil – he’s a good officer with great instincts. At least he got the girl responsible for the assault. 

But Zil’s world comes crashing down around him when he discovers Dalia was in fact not the suspect. The immense guilt over the schoolboy’s horrific injuries, coupled with the pressure of the critical incident investigation and the media scrutiny, creates an unbearable burden.

Encouraged by his brothers in blue, Zil becomes obsessed with pinning something on Dalia. She must have done something wrong. Why else would she run? 

As Dalia finds herself constantly stopped, questioned and searched by police, she turns to those who understand what it’s like to be a police target. And so begins Dalia’s descent into the criminal underworld, leaving Zil to reflect on whether the Force apprehends criminals, or creates them. As he grapples with the role he played in Dalia’s fate, he races to prevent Dalia from committing her life to crime.

Curriculum Links:

Critical Incident can be linked to the Australian Curriculum subject areas of:

• Civics and Citizenship (Year 10)
• Media and Film Studies (VCE Year 11)
• English (Year 10)

In addition, it also relate to the General Capability of Literacy.

Critical Incident provides opportunities for students to:

• Develop and apply thinking and problem-solving skills;
• Discuss the relationship between the text and the context in which the text is produced;
• Analyse the narrative and narrative features of Critical Incident;
• Analyse the representation of ideas and issues in Critical Incident to consider how the text represents human experience;
• Develop and justify their interpretations of Critical Incident;
• Create a wide range of texts, make presentations and contribute actively to class and small group discussions.