From: [p--tr--w] at [pcug.org.au] (Peter Watney)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.drugs
Subject: Re: Police Corruption
Date: Tue, 19 Sep 95 07:03:54 EST

As a background to the following editorial in Australia's Capital City's 
broadsheet, there has been general suspicion of corruption in the State of 
New South Wales police force for many years.

The Federal Government is known as the Commonwealth of Australia, or the 
Commonwealth for short.  It has its own police force which looks after 
national police affairs and the Australian Capital Territory and each of the 
6 states and the Northern Territory have their own police forces.

Succeeding NSW Police Commissioners have investigated the force that they 
commanded using internal investigations.  One or two officers have been 
imprisoned, and each time there has been an announcement that the source of 
the evil has been discovered, rooted out and that now all is well.

The internal investigations have implied that 'casinos' do not exist in 
Sydney, even though any member of the public wishing to gamble has known 
where to go.  Brothels are unknown, even though the Yellow Pages are full of 
advertisements under the heading of 'Escort Services' such as 

                Exotic Studio

                   7 DAYS 
                ESCORTS CENTRE
               XX WHATSIT STREET
                 SURREY HILLS
             (Off Street Parking)

                Open 24 hours

                  XYZ-ABCD

Drugs have been readily available in Sydney, and especially in Kings Cross 
and environs, but the more notorious of the suspected suppliers have never 
been arrested.

Last year the Government of NSW appointed a Royal Commission to investigate 
the Police Force.  A Royal Commission is a device for an inquiry that can 
subpoena witnesses and force them to give evidence under oath with the same 
penalties for perjury that would apply in the Courts.

The Government had steadfastly supported its Police Commissioner, and was 
very sceptical as to the motives of the very few Members of Parliament that 
insisted that a full and external investigation was required, however it 
eventually bit the bullet with a big public shrug of the shoulders implying 
that nothing substantial would result.

The public has been fascinated and appalled at some of the evidence that has 
appeared on television, complete with the video-tapes and with the obscene 
conversations of police and their co-conspirators sitting in their cars and 
handing over bribe monies.

Canberra Times editorial on Sunday, August 27, 1995.

Quote:

No real laughs in sorry NSW tale.

The adjournment of the NSW Police Royal Commission until September 4 provides 
an opportunity for corrupt police to come forward and, in the parlance of the 
day, "roll over" by confessing their sins in the hope of more lenient 
treatment.  It also allows the community to digest the unpleasant facts 
Commissioner Wood and his team have brought to light in the public hearings 
so far.

That there are more corrupt police yet to be revealed seems certain.  
Moreover, when the Commission resumes it will concentrate initially on the 
Commonwealth-State Joint Drug Task Force.  This has the potential to involve 
Canberra-based detectives since the drug-law enforcement area is a notorious 
breeding ground for corruption.  The pity of it is that honest police 
officers will also be tainted by their association with corrupt colleagues.  
The effect on service morale is disastrous already and, in the longer term, 
it will be increasingly difficult to maintain standards because potentially 
good recruits will be unwilling to sign on.

Most of the revelations so far have been concerned with Sydney's Kings Cross 
where, it is alleged, police saw the streets "paved with gold" as criminals 
paid them to look the other way or to assist them, in a variety of ways, to 
purue their nefarious activities.  Indeed at times it has seemed that police 
and criminals have been sharing the spoils as though united against the 
"civilian" community.

There is always a danger that a regulatory body will become too close to the 
sector it is established to oversee - a government forestry department for 
example, often becomes an advocate for foresters instead of a dispassionate 
regulator - and the effects are easily revealed and reversed.  But when 
police and criminals form a partnership to prey on society they shroud 
themselves in secrecy and enforce a code of silence with crude weaponry.

On this occasion one man, Detective Sergeant Trevor Haken, broke ranks and 
his evidence has caused others to "roll over" with their own stories, so 
widening the stain of corruption.  Sergeant Haken is in no sense an admirable 
character.  He seems not only to have been corrupt almost from the beginning 
of his career but to have drawn others into the net.  It must be said, 
however, that once he was "turned" he showed considerable courage in 
gathering evidence against fellow police.  In a nine month period, while on 
sick leave, he collected more than $26,000 in corrupt payments and was 
intimately involved in pay-offs, most notably to Detective Inspector Graham 
Fowler.

The videotape recording with its soundtrack of obscenities provided the most 
enduring images so far.  It opened a window to a world of "laughs" and 
"giggles" - code words for bribes - that revealed a deep-seated contempt for 
ordinary decency.  And, together with other revelations, it gave the lie to 
assertions by the NSW Police Commissioner, Tony Lauer, that corruption was no 
longer endemic in the force.

It is difficult to see at this stage how Commissioner Lauer can survive the 
inquiry.  At the very least he is shown to be an incompetent administrator.  
If he was unaware of the extent of the corruption he was not doing his job.  
If he did know, or even suspect, the degree of rottenness, then he should 
have acted.  To do otherwise was negligent.

But if Commissioner Lauer is sacked - as he should be - who is to replace him 
and what is to be done with a police service so thoroughly tainted?  In the 
past top-ranking officers have been imported from overseas or interstate, but 
such is the resentment from the locals that the "new boy" quickly becomes 
isolated and ineffective.  In such an atmosphere corruption flourishes.  
Clearly there is need for radical change and Royal Commissioner Wood may well 
make recommendations to reshape the NSW police force completely.

It is highly unlikely the Government would act to decriminalise drugs and 
thereby remove a major source of corruption.  Failing that, it would seem to 
have little option but to dismantle the system itself and virtually start 
again to build a force from the ground up.  Anything less would ensure that, 
in short order, corruption would reappear and the contagion begin to spread 
once more.

Unquote.

The Canberra Times published my letter to the editor today, 3 September, 
1995:

Quote:

Sir,
Your editorial, 'No real laughs in sorry NSW tale' (CT August 27) offers two 
alternatives:  decriminalise drugs or dismantle and rebuild the police force.

Against decriminalisation is the difficulty that any Government faces in 
convincing public opinion that legalising illict drugs will not encourage 
their use.

Against dismantling and rebuilding the police force there are strong internal 
and external arguments.

The force is a large and complex organisation manned by professionals who 
dedicate their whole working life to policing.  The majority of police are 
almost certainly not corrupt, though the difficulty of identifying those that 
are has been demonstrated by the long campaign waged by John Hatton, met 
throughout by the expressed disbelief of senior police and by Government.  

How does one dismantle and rebuild such a force without destroying its 
usefulness for years to come?

It is most unlikely that the corruption that is now being revealed is 
confined to the police.  We have previously seen a NSW Government Minister 
imprisoned for curruptly causing the early release of prisoners, and we have 
seen the downfall of a Chief Magistrate for his dealings with some of the 
same names that are now reappearing in this Royal Commission.

It is a widely expressed belief that drug law enforcement stops only ten 
percent of the world-wide trade, that untaxed profits for dealers are some 
two thousand percent, and that the value traded world-wide in these illegal 
substances exceeds the value of petroleum traded.  At least 25 judges have 
been killed by the Colombian drug barons, and it is an open secret that US 
Government agencies have traded in the substances to further their concept of 
US interests.

Is it likely that a dismantled and reconstructed police force can be kept 
isolated from the level of corruption available to the traders?  What do we 
do while the reconstruction is taking place?

After the St Valentines day massacre in Chicago the US bit the alcohol 
bullet and ended prohibition of that substance after its 14 year deadly 
experiment.  The alcohol traded thereafter was at least safer than bootleg 
liquor, and the street warfare was dramatically reduced.

I do hope that you are wrong, and that the Government will act to 
decriminalise drugs, and therby remove the major source of corruption.

There are better ways to lessen the amounts of dangerous substa0nces that 
presently threaten our young than by providing criminals with vast untaxed 
profits through prohibition, and thus giving them an incentive to get more 
and more victims hooked.

Peter Watney

[unquote]

The continuation of the hearings is now listening to taped conversations
involving senior officers in the Police Commissioner's office, including
an Assistant Commissioner and a Chief Superindendent, who are so far
declaring their innocence but admitting that their positions have been so
compromised that their police careers are probably ended.

The Premier of NSW is proposing that juveniles persistently charged with
drug dealing offences should be treated as adults before the Courts, but
that has immediately led to protests from the Law Society.

The Courts are certainly going to be very careful about accepting police
evidence in the light of the ongoing revelations.

How would the law and order system stand up to an independent inquiry with
teeth in your neck of the woods?

Peter Watney