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| NEWS > 06 July 2006 |
Other related articles:
Council to decide former offic
When the Wickenburg Town Council meets next week, it will decide whether or not to uphold a 3-month-old decision to terminate Wickenburg Police Officer James Christian Sallee.
The meeting will take place at Town Hall Tuesday (Sept. 5) at 5:30 p.m. The meeting was moved from Monday to Tuesday in observance of Labor Day.
Sallee's employment with the town ended this past May at the conclusion of an internal investigation relating to a 2004 off-duty incident that took place north of Yarnell.
The final decision to terminate Sallee was made by Town Manager Shane Dill... Read more
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 Article sourced from
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ABC Online - Australia
06 July 2006
This article appeared in the above title/site.
To view it in its entirity click this link.
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Corruption watchdog raids Vic
AM - Thursday, 6 July , 2006 08:12:00
Reporter: Josie Taylor
HAMISH ROBERTSON: In Victoria, the government department set up to tackle police corruption has raided the headquarters of one of the force's elite crime squads and will recommend the entire squad be scrapped.
After a lengthy investigation, the Office of Police Integrity swooped on the Armed Offenders squad, seizing documents and tapes.
The OPI has told AM its investigation has uncovered allegations of serious assaults by officers on suspects, and says criminal charges could be laid.
In Melbourne, Josie Taylor reports.
JOSIE TAYLOR: Within Victoria Police, members of the Armed Offenders Squad are known as the "hard men" of the force. They investigate armed robberies, non-fatal shootings, and gun trafficking.
But for the last four months the squad has been under investigation itself, after a number of their suspects complained of intimidation and severe beatings.
And after raiding the squad's headquarters yesterday, the Office of Police Integrity has today made its investigation public.
Graeme Ashton is the Assistant Director of the OPI
GRAEME ASHTON: We have been quite concerned by the growing number of assault complaints that we've received in relation to this squad.
JOSIE TAYLOR: How many allegations have you received?
GRAEME ASHTON: Well, we're not going to be saying publicly exactly how many we've received, because we're still dealing with a number of them, but there have been quite a number.
JOSIE TAYLOR: And over what sort of time frame?
GRAEME ASHTON: This investigation's been running around about four months at the moment, but we've been going back and dealing with assaults that go back... allegations of assault that go back at least a couple of years.
JOSIE TAYLOR: I understand that there's also been concern about disturbing patterns of behaviour within the squad. Can you outline what those patterns are?
GRAEME ASHTON: Well at this stage, that investigation's ongoing but what we're seeing already from what we've been able to corroborate, from what we've been told by these people that made the allegations, these particular offences, what we're seeing concerns us about the culture within the squad and we're forming a view, very quickly, that it's not a healthy culture that exists there.
JOSIE TAYLOR: These allegations are seemingly of a different era of policing. Why is it that they've been able to, if the allegations are proved correct, to thrive within this particular squad?
GRAEME ASHTON: This is exactly what we're trying to get to the bottom of. You've called that right - these sort of allegations really hark back to a bygone era, and we've been most concerned by what we're finding by way of corroboration which indicates to us that these are behaviours that should have been long gone and not still present within the ranks of the police.
JOSIE TAYLOR: This isn't the first Victorian Police crime squad to face allegations of entrenched corrupt behaviour.
The Drug squad was completely scrapped and reformed five years ago in an effort to clean up its reputation.
And Graeme Ashton says the OPI will be recommending the Police Chief Commissioner do the same in this case.
GRAEME ASHTON: Well, we believe that if at the end of this investigation, if we are able to sustain these allegations and show that they have real substance, then we'll be recommending to the Chief Commissioner that that's got to be abolished.
JOSIE TAYLOR: Do you also believe that criminal charges could result out of this investigation?
GRAEME ASHTON: Well, certainly if we're able to continue in the manner that we are, we believe that criminal charges would certainly be one avenue that we would be looking at.
JOSIE TAYLOR: These damaging allegations seem to dispute Victoria Police's public line that corruption within the force is limited to a few rogue individuals.
A police spokeswoman says force command fully supports the OPI investigation, but the Chief Commissioner is yet to comment.
HAMISH ROBERTSON: Josie Taylor reporting.
Victoria's Police Minister, Tim Holding, declined to be interviewed, but he did say that the OPI's investigation shows that Victoria's anti-corruption measures are working.
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