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| NEWS > 01 March 2007 |
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Why corruption persists in Nig
To an average Nigerian, the most corrupt organisation in the country today is the Nigeria Police Force (NPF). What with the horde of policemen, mostly the rank and file (comprising constables, corporals, sergeants and inspectors), who daily troop to the highways to collect illegal tolls, derisively referred to as egunje?
And to add credence to the belief of this school of thought, the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC), the anti-graft body in Nigeria, led until recently by retired Justice Mustapha Akanbi, passed a verdict that the police and the National... Read more
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 Article sourced from
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Melbourne Herald Sun - Melbour
01 March 2007
This article appeared in the above title/site.
To view it in its entirity click this link.
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Victoria Police
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Corrupt cops revered as heroes
SOME allegedly corrupt officers have been allowed to remain with Victoria Police because their high arrest rates have impressed superiors.
The Office of Police Integrity yesterday claimed these suspect officers were revered as heroes by other police.
It said most of them continued to be promoted despite mounting evidence and intelligence of corrupt behaviour.
An OPI report tabled in State Parliament yesterday also claimed:
POLICE pursuing prostitutes and other women for sexual favours continued to be a problem.
THE OPI has uncovered evidence that the past policy of police investigating police helped officers get away with corruption.
THE Victoria Police Association is impeding the introduction of anti-corruption measures.
TACKLING noble-cause corruption, where the end supposedly justifies the means, will be an OPI priority in coming years.
The OPI report tabled yesterday included a history of corruption and chapters on how it should be tackled.
Called Past Patterns -- Future Directions, the 160-page document said police corruption problems identified by previous royal commissions and inquiries were continuing today.
"From the 1920s up to the present, it is clear that some of the force's outstandingly successful police have also been corrupt," the report said.
OPI director George Brouwer yesterday stressed he was not suggesting there was widespread corruption, but the damage done by those who were corrupt was enormous.
"The experience of the OPI to date is that the vast majority of police men and women do a good and conscientious job," Mr Brouwer said.
"But our experience also confirms the extent of the damage done to those police, the force and the community as a whole, when one or more police are found to be corrupt."
Investigators from the OPI have spent more than a year profiling a large number of Victoria Police officers they suspect are corrupt.
"While it is not possible for legal reasons to go into specific details regarding individuals, a number of personnel files examined by the review team demonstrates disturbing similarities in patterns of behaviour," the report said.
"The typical profile of these men and women are individuals who, in early careers, gain notoriety.
"A number of these police have been prosecuted in relation to serious criminal offences . . . but all were found not guilty and remained in the force.
"Some are boastful about the misdeeds of their past, engaging with a wide range of associates, including criminals.
"Their direct supervisors are generally forgiving of their aberrant behaviour because of their high arrest rates. An important feature these individuals have in common is the high number of public complaints they attract.
"Some personnel files revealed individuals with more than 50 complaints."
The report said some officers had made written complaints about the suspect behaviour of their colleagues.
"But having identified the problem, little seems to have been done about it," it said.
The report said the OPI was focusing on a number of areas where serious continuing corruption had been identified, including:
POLICE being involved in manufacturing and selling illegal drugs.
CONTINUED undesirable ties between serving police and convicted criminals.
POLICE stealing property and cash from the public.
IMPROPER and illegal management of informers by police, including committing crimes with them.
POLICE actively subverting the legal process to their own end.
The OPI, often in conjunction with the Victoria Police ethical standards department, has so far prepared 17 briefs of evidence involving more than 100 criminal charges against 17 officers.
It is finalising other briefs against several former armed offenders squad members who are expected to be charged with assault and other offences before May.
The OPI has also told Chief Commissioner Christine Nixon it has evidence that warrants her disciplining dozens of other allegedly corrupt officers.
Some of this evidence has come from the 75 people so far ordered to attend OPI hearings.
All but two of the hearings were held in secret.
Mr Brouwer said the OPI would continue to work with Ms Nixon to rid Victoria Police of those who abused the trust society had vested in them.
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