NEWS > 20 October 2006

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The Age - Melbourne,Victoria,A
20 October 2006

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Amid the successes, shortcomin

Corruption is insidious. The stain it leaves on people and organisations can be indelible and have consequences far beyond the initial act. The police force is more sensitive than most in this regard because its reason for existence is to maintain order in society.

In 2001, Christine Nixon had hardly taken on the job as Chief Commissioner when she was confronted with allegations of corruption. Within nine months, she had disbanded the drug squad. This week Victorians saw the reason and justification for her action. In the Supreme Court, a detective who had been one of this state's top drug investigators, was convicted of trafficking commercial quantities of chemicals to the underworld. Wayne Strawthorn had been a senior sergeant in the drug squad.

He was not alone: two other members of the drug squad are now serving lengthy prison terms, and two others are awaiting sentencing. The result did not come cheaply. Bringing Strawthorn to justice has cost about $6 million over almost two years and three trials. But it has been worth it. The eradication of police corruption has to be done and be seen to be done. The public deserves, indeed must demand, that its police force can be trusted. It must have faith that officers, from whichever department and whatever rank, will uphold the basic tenet of their profession, that is, to maintain law and order.

The prosecutions were the result of investigations by the anti-corruption taskforce Ceja. Yet, as The Age reports today, the effect of the work on the investigators of corruption is often debilitating. They can become lepers within the force. Detective Sergeant Bill Patten, a member of Ceja, is one such example. His disillusionment is deep and, compounding this are his claims that while Ceja was unearthing corruption, it was being let down badly in key areas. Sergeant Patten speaks of "tokenistic" responses to the information the taskforce was gathering, the targeting of officers instead of looking at the management that created an atmosphere in which corruption could bloom, and the "pathetic" internal disciplining of police suspected of being corrupt. He says, most troublingly, that corrupt officers remain in the force.

Of course, this is not a perfect world and, as Ms Nixon acknowledged yesterday, pockets of corruption will always exist. "I think that's the history really in policing," she told ABC radio. Victoria Police, with its staff of 14,000, would always have some who could be tempted to betray their calling and act illegally. It was up to the police to work on systems to prevent that happening, and if it does occur, to crush it through disciplinary or court proceedings. When Ms Nixon disbanded the drug squad, she was responding to an internal review. Ceja was put in place in 2001. In 2004, the State Government formed the Office of Police Integrity, an independent body that reports to Parliament.

Dragging misconduct and corruption into the light is an ugly business. It is convulsive and disconcerting. Victorians were witness to this last month when the OPI conducted public hearings into allegations that members of the disbanded armed offenders squad assaulted suspects during interviews. The officers denied wrongdoing. In the fallout of the hearings being made public, a rally of more than 1000 police members heard the Police Association secretary Paul Mullett call for the OPI to be disbanded and for Ms Nixon and her deputy Simon Overland to resign.

There is a phrase - "noble corruption", which basically translates as the end justifies the means. It could just as easily be termed "noble rot". Once corruption and misconduct seeps into the system, it colours the manner and attitude adopted in upholding the law.

The Ceja taskforce has finished its work. While Ms Nixon is to be applauded for adopting a hard-nosed approach to police corruption, if the culture still remains for it to flourish, then it will. It would be a damning indictment of shortsightedness if in a few years another taskforce had to be formed for the same reasons that Ceja came into being.

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Article sourced from

The Age - Melbourne,Victoria,A20 October 2006

Amid the successes, shortcomin

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The Age - Melbourne,Victoria,A
20 October 2006