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| NEWS > 16 December 2007 |
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Police warned over fatal shoot
VICTORIAN police were too trigger-happy and poorly equipped to deal with the mentally ill, the corruption watchdog declared yesterday, calling for drug and alcohol testing and urgent retraining of officers after a spate of fatal shootings.
The Office of Police Integrity warned that officers were in danger of losing the confidence of the community over the "inappropriate use of force".
A report into six fatal police shootings since January 2003 found that Victorian police had become "overly reliant on firearms", especially when dealing with the mentally ill.
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 Article sourced from
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Advertiser Adelaide - Adelaide
16 December 2007
This article appeared in the above title/site.
To view it in its entirity click this link.
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Police guard their law breache
POLICE are being accused of "excessive secrecy" for taking a year to release sparse details of individual cases of serious misconduct by officers.
Details of the 29 officers' cases, proved before the Police Disciplinary Tribunal, are contained in a written response to an Opposition question asked in November last year.
It reveals little extra detail to the brief summary provided in police annual reports, further intensifying pressure for greater scrutiny of police misconduct.
The data included officers found guilty on two occasions of "improperly obtaining benefit or advantage" and, in six instances, of breaching "confidentiality of information".
The 2005-06 details show misconduct charges were withdrawn against five officers because they either had resigned or had retired.
Opposition Upper House leader and police spokesman David Ridgway yesterday accused police of "excessive secrecy" for taking so long to provide the details and not publishing it in annual reports.
"I'd like to know why police think the hearings need to be kept secret," Mr Ridgway said. "The legislation is something we would look at. We are prepared to have a debate about the need for greater transparency and the public's right to know about what happens in these hearings."
He said legislation should be reviewed to determine if hearings could be more open but with mechanisms to keep certain matters confidential if required.
Body: Police say they are satisfied with the current arrangements and there is "scope" for some members of the public, with an interest in the case, to attend tribunal hearings.
Hearings for serious professional misconduct are held in secret before a police disciplinary tribunal, unlike hearings for such professions as lawyers, doctors and teachers, which are open to the public.
The tribunal, governed by the Police (Complaints and Disciplinary Proceedings) Act, hears cases referred by the Police Complaints Authority. The tribunal is chaired by a senior magistrate and, by law, must operate in strict secrecy.
Police Association president Peter Alexander yesterday said the tribunal always had been "treated differently because of the nature of the issues raised".
He said the association had an "open mind" about a push for greater transparency.
"If Parliament wants to examine the processes of the police employment tribunal and the issues out of that, such as onus of proof and not beyond reasonable doubt, then that's fine," Mr Alexander said.
"We are prepared to discuss this with the Opposition and the Government. We would welcome a public debate about what is appropriate and what is not."
Police Minister Paul Holloway's spokesman, Owen Brown, yesterday said answering part of the Opposition's question involved a large amount of administrative work.
The Government was "constrained by the Police Act on how much information it could provide".
"The Police Act was supported on a bipartisan basis under the previous Liberal government," he said. The tribunal hearings required an element of confidentiality because matters related to breaches of the code of conduct, rather than criminality.
"There are legitimate reasons to have a level of confidentiality because no officers have broken any laws, they have just been charged with disciplinary breaches, which are still independently examined by a magistrate," Mr Brown said.
A spokeswoman for Police Commissioner Mal Hyde, in an emailed statement, said: "The Commissioner is satisfied with the current legislation, which does have scope for members of the public to be present."
The individual case details supplied to The Advertiser were contained in a written response by Mr Holloway to a question in Parliament from Opposition Upper House MP Rob Lucas.
On November 15 last year, Mr Lucas asked Mr Holloway to provide details of the 29 cases found proved and five where officers resigned or retired, before the Police Disciplinary Tribunal last financial year.
Mr Lucas yesterday said he only received the written reply on November 13 - almost one year later.
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