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NEWS > 31 July 2006

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Saranac Lake police chief fire
SARANAC LAKE — Village trustees fired suspended Police Chief Donald G. Perryman Jr. after reviewing 67 pages of findings and recommendations from an administrative officer.

Perryman was suspended in early October, when events surrounding a police patrol-car accident went to administrative hearing.

Officer Robert S. Hite’s presided over two days of testimony that brought forward evidence and eyewitness accounts of an Oct. 5, 2005, crash involving two Saranac Police officers, who totaled a police car just outside the village limits after spending the day in Plattsburgh. Read more

 Article sourced from

The Age - Melbourne,Victoria,A
31 July 2006
This article appeared in the above title/site.
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Watchdogs will never be popula

POLICE do not welcome external scrutiny and often react poorly to criticism, so the Office of Police Integrity is never going win popularity polls in police stations.

Indeed, if the OPI and police were to establish a hand-in-hand relationship it would be proof the anti-corruption body had become a lapdog, rather than a watchdog.

But criticism by the head of the Special Operations Group, Inspector John Noonan, reflects a growing concern from senior officers to rank-and-file police, who feel the OPI is more concerned about justifying its existence than uncovering corruption.

The relationship was further frayed when front-page headlines announced this month that the OPI had "raided" the St Kilda Road offices of the armed offenders squad.

If police are to be believed, OPI investigators arrived by appointment, were provided with an office and given material relating to allegations that a man charged with three armed robberies had been assaulted by detectives.

Police claim the OPI leaked information about the "raid" to the media and deliberately inflated the extent of the operation. They also say the OPI declined an offer to park inside the building, and parked outside where a photographer could take shots of investigators loading boxes of "seized" documents into their car.

The OPI says police protest too much and want to protect the force's reputation at the expense of independent investigations.

Mr Noonan has no reason to embrace the OPI after it criticised the Special Operations Group last year over a fatal shooting.

And police tip-off the media about raids when it serves their purposes.

In many ways the OPI will never win. Its critics, which have included the State Opposition and the Federal Government, claim it was formed to act as a political pressure valve over growing concerns about police illegality. Its enemies, which include the powerful Police Association, say it is unaccountable, out of control and does not afford police under investigation due process.

Chief Commissioner Christine Nixon has always supported an external anti-corruption body, and to be effective it will always have to step on toes.

The OPI must chart a course where it is seen to be independent without being rabid. It must rely on information from police whistleblowers to make serious inroads into corruption. If it is seen as the enemy, that information could dry up.

 

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