NEWS > 09 January 2007

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The Australian - Sydney,Austra
09 January 2007

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We'll be watching corruption i

VICTORIA'S powerful police union has put the state's anti-corruption watchdog on notice, saying it would closely monitor the conduct of a planned investigation into links between allegedly corrupt officers and organised crime to ensure it was fair.
"If the Office of Police Integrity crosses the line in terms of abusing their powers or not affording our members natural justice or procedural fairness, they will hear from us loud and clear," Victorian Police Association assistant secretary Inspector Bruce McKenzie said yesterday.
The Victorian Government said the planned investigation, revealed in The Australian yesterday, showed the corruption watchdog was doing its job.

The OPI will examine intelligence about possible links between corrupt officers and organised crime networks, including claims some Melbourne underworld figures were protected.

There was a public confrontation between the union and the OPI in September over the conduct of an investigation into allegations that members of the elite Armed Offenders Squad had assaulted suspects.

"If there is sufficient evidence to put our members before the courts and they are convicted, as has happened in the past, so be it. But where the OPI uses its powers in a way that denies our members natural justice, the association has a clear responsibility to stand up for our members," Inspector McKenzie said.

The confrontation in September was triggered by public hearings at which secretly taped surveillance video was shown of squad detectives apparently assaulting suspects.

Inspector McKenzie said the OPI was "unaccountable" and lacked proper oversight to ensure it did not abuse its powers.

But Acting Victorian Premier John Thwaites said the decision to launch the investigation was a matter for the OPI.

"What we are seeing is that the OPI is prepared to take action and that's what they are doing," Mr Thwaites said. He rejected suggestions that the OPI had been slow to act, given earlier claims that corrupt police had been linked with Melbourne's bloody underworld war, in which more than 20 people were killed.

Former senior Victoria Police corruption investigator Simon Illingworth said the OPI's inquiry was long overdue. Mr Illingworth resigned after publicly criticising Victoria Police for not doing enough to weed out corruption.

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Article sourced from

The Australian - Sydney,Austra09 January 2007

We'll be watching corruption i

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The Australian - Sydney,Austra
09 January 2007