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