|
|
|
| NEWS > 25 November 2005 |
Other related articles:
Cop accused of corruption out
A police constable accused of corruption is out on bail Tuesday evening while another policeman also accused of corruption remains behind bars.
Constables Peter O'Connor and Ricardo Evans appeared in the Montego Bay Resident Magistrate's Court Tuesday morning to answer to charges of breaches of the Corruption Prevention Act.
Constable O'Connor was granted bail in the sum of $100,000 while Constable Evans was remanded after the court heard that he faced a similar charge a few years ago.
That case was dropped as the complainant did not pursue the matter at the time.
Read more
|
 Article sourced from
|
|
Australian - Australia
25 November 2005
This article appeared in the above title/site.
To view it in its entirity click this link.
|
|
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.
The extent of the problem was evident in the numbers: 29 people had been shot dead by Victoria Police between 1990 and last year - almost almost twice as many as their counterparts in NSW, where 18 were killed.
OPI director George Brouwer said there was an "urgent need for police to develop skills ... managing people who are presenting with the symptoms of mental disorder".
Mr Brouwer said three of the deaths at the hands of uniform police since 2003 could have been avoided had police immediately conducted "a thorough and constructively critical evaluation" of the shooting of Mount Waverley man Mark Kaufmann, a schizophrenic, on January 19, 2002.
"The coroner's findings regarding Mr Kaufmann's death are in the most part identical to the conclusions that have been drawn during this review regarding three of the four shootings by operational uniformed officers," he said.
The OPI review also recommended "as a matter of routine" drug and alcohol testing of police involved in critical incidents.
"The introduction of testing after such incidents would protect the police involved if they were alleged to have acted while affected by alcohol or illegal drugs," he said.
Mr Brouwer said police practices "that are not satisfactory" should be addressed immediately and "more meaningful partnerships" established with other government agencies, including Crisis Assessment and Treatment CAT Teams.
Victoria Police deputy commissioner Noel Ashby disagreed with Mr Brouwer's claim that officers had used force inappropriately.
Police used force in 8500 of 1.57million incidents they attended between July 2003 and June this year. He said the use of force was rare, considering almost 6000 assaults were made on police at those incidents.
Victorian police are also looking at increasing the two days every six months allotted to training on dealing with the mentally ill.
Mr Ashby said legislation allowing police to be tested for drugs and alcohol would be enacted before Victorian parliament rises from this sitting.
"We have been working through this for some time with the Police Association," he said.
The OPI report was tabled in parliament yesterday.
"There can be no winners when an officer of Victoria Police fatally shoots a member of the public," Mr Brouwer said.
"The consequences are far reaching, not only for the individual who has lost his or her life, but also for the families and friends of both those who die and the police involved."
The report said a police superintendent should be directly in charge of the Special Operations Group "to reflect the current responsibilities of the unit". The officer in charge of the SOG now holds the rank of inspector.
|
| |
 EiP Comments:
|
|---|
|
| |
* We have no wish to infringe the copyright of any newspaper or periodical. If you feel that we have done so then please contact us with the details and we will remove the article. The articles republished on this site are provided for the purposes of research , private study, criticism , review, and the reporting of current events' We have no wish to infringe the copyright of any newspaper , periodical or other works. If you feel that we have done so then please contact us with the details and where necessary we will remove the work concerned.
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
 |
Ethics in Policing, based in the UK, provide information and advice about the following:
Policing Research | Police News articles | Police Corruption | International Policing | Police Web Sites | Police Forum | Policing Ethics | Police Journals | Police Publications |
|
| |
|
