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| NEWS > 17 April 2006 |
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A fresh start
Two ex-Cleveland cops disgraced after one urinated against a Lithuanian palace have launched a new company - teaching policing ethics.
Former Chief Superintendent Kevin Pitt and retired Inspector Kerry Anderson are both directors of Ethics In Policing, a law enforcement ethics website.
The pair were in Vilnius to help train police anti-corruption investigators when they were arrested after one of them was caught urinating against a presidential palace wall in February, 2002.
Mr Pitt was fined £35 for the offence in a Lithuanian court and said he quit his post a... Read more
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 Article sourced from
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Daily Telegraph - Sydney,New S
17 April 2006
This article appeared in the above title/site.
To view it in its entirity click this link.
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Honest cops' secret agony
SENIOR police have led a vicious campaign of harassment against fellow officers who complain about corruption, even targeting family members for driving offences.
The whistleblowers have been physically attacked, stood over and subjected to psychological "mind games", a confidential report prepared for NSW Police reveals.
The document -- seen by The Daily Telegraph -- shows those who complain are also denied promotional opportunities, transferred against their wishes to undesirable locations and given menial jobs.
Inside the force they become the butt of cruel jokes, verbal abuse, teasing and social exclusion such as no longer being invited to the pub.
More than half of the 89 police complainants surveyed -- known as internal witnesses -- say they have been subjected to psychological harassment for "rocking the boat".
But the report has thrown up a whole new method of attack against witnesses to police corruption or misconduct -- "payback" complaints.
Twenty-seven per cent of whistleblowers claim to have had a payback complaint made against them "to get back at you for being involved in the investigation".
Ten per cent of witnesses also report physical harassment including physical intimidation.
By law all police are required to report criminal offences or other misconduct by officers to their superiors.
But harassment has increased from 46per cent in 2000-2002 to 51per cent in 2002-2004, with senior officers making up about a third of the harassers, the report found.
One policewoman said: "They targeted my husband by using driving offences. My husband is not a police officer."
Another police whistleblower was forced to change her son's pre-school "because the offender's wife said things there".
Despite the existence of a special unit to support police complainants, some told of being "blackballed" and forced to resign.
"I had difficulty in getting a transfer even after tenure," one officer said.
"The reason is because I had made a complaint and they were making things difficult for me."
Another whistleblower said: "I resigned. Lost my job. I went to hospital and never came back."
And another: "I'm not going through this hell again ... it's not worth the drama ... not worth what happens to the family."
The report prepared for the NSW Police by social researchers Urbis Keys Young examines the "Health and Well-being of Internal Witnesses". It says support for complainants from senior officers is "worryingly low" and recommends sending them away for retraining.
One in four internal witnesses do not report their harassment to anyone.
The report shows 2186 complaints by NSW Police employees about corruption or misconduct were referred to the internal witness support unit between 2002 and 2004.
Overall, 75per cent of complainants report receiving support from at least someone in the NSW Police.
But the report adds: "There is a growing minority who report a lack of support from (and lack of confidence in) their work environment."
Police whistleblowers do not often emerge into the public spotlight.
One who did, and took a starring role at the police royal commission a decade ago, was former Detective Senior Constable Debbie Locke.
The former fraud squad member effectively was "blackbanned" by police colleagues after complaining about corrupt officers.
She became so stressed that a police medical officer assessed her as being incapacitated and unable to work, ending her career on the spot.
But her evidence given later to the police royal commission help lay bare the endemic corruption in the force.
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