Thursday, October 25, 2012
Foot-dragging over thug W.A. cops
The instinct to protect cops clashes with the evidence so the result is indecision and buck-passing all round
WA Police Commissioner Karl O'Callaghan gave evidence at a parliamentary hearing on how the Corruption and Crime Commission (CCC) handled allegations of police misconduct. Pic WILKINS DANIEL Source: PerthNow
WEST Australian Police Commissioner Karl O'Callaghan is concerned that the futures of the police officers involved in the infamous Kevin Spratt tasering incident are still unclear four years after it happened.
Mr Spratt was tasered in August 2008 by senior constables Troy Tomlin and Aaron Strahan after he refused a strip search.
CCTV footage of the tasering caused public outrage and demands that the officers involved be charged, but no charges have been laid.
Mr O'Callaghan and Assistant Commissioner of Professional Standards Dominic Staltari gave evidence on Wednesday at a parliamentary hearing on how the Corruption and Crime Commission (CCC) handled allegations of police misconduct such as the Spratt incident.
Mr Staltari said a draft CCC report had labelled the police investigation into the Spratt matter as "thorough and balanced'' but such remarks were taken out of the final report.
He said the CCC took 18 months to finalise its report into the matter.
Police had originally referred the matter to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) on October 11, 2010, but a month later the CCC decided to do its own investigation.
The matter has now been referred back to police via the DPP, and Mr Staltari said police would decide soon what to do next.
Mr O'Callaghan showed frustration at how long the probe had taken.
"We're not one step in front of where we were,'' he said.
Mr Staltari said the CCC was able to lay charges against police officers but had instead "handballed'' the matter back to the DPP for "serious consideration''.
Mr O'Callaghan said that was ``bizarre'' because the CCC had reached the same conclusion that the police originally had.
He said any complaints against an officer went first to police and the CCC was also informed.
"If you make a complaint to me, the CCC will know about it,'' Mr O'Callaghan said.
Mr Staltari said if the CCC made a finding of misconduct, the commissioner could not do anything with its report - he would have to order a separate police investigation.
He said he had previously suggested a "liaison meeting'' with the CCC but was told it would not look good for the CCC to appear to be "in bed'' with police and it needed to be independent.
However, 18 months later the CCC had made the same suggestion to him, which he welcomed.
The hearing heard that low-level complaints about police were usually investigated within 30 days while matters that required a more fully assessable investigation could take up to 60 days.
Mr O'Callaghan said the most serious cases should not take more than six months to investigate.
Mr Staltari said he would be concerned if any matter at internal affairs took more than three months and it would prompt him to intercede.
SOURCE
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Power play and nothing more than that. Karl O'Callaghan is running Western Australia and he is blatantly thumbing his nose at the rest of the Government Departments and flexing his muscle. This is what happens when you put a guard dog in charge. The guard dog becomes alpha (boss) and turns on you. Premier Barnett's bluff was called when he disgustingly allowed the Police Commissioner to publicly vilify and destroy the career of a senior Public Servant whose sole crime was to provide witness evidence under instruction via the CCC Act. 45% of that evidence was missing, but there was enough to indicate 'serious misuse of corporate credit cards by WAPOL Hierarchy' (O'Callaghan unbelievably got away with paying back funds 4 years later and only AFTER he learnt of a CCC inquiry. For the rest of the population, that is called Stealing as a Public Servant). The CCC are merely a PR exercise response to a shocking Royal Commission exposing 'endemic corruption in WAPOL' in 2002. they are absolutely NO threat to O'Callaghan. They are subordinate to O'Callaghan, but he wants to wipe them off the credibility map because then he will have absolute power in western australia without possibility of reproach. Barnett has already attempted to intro a bill to restrict their detail to assist WAPOL with organised crime only so it's only a matter of time before WA becomes a Police State literally. Watch what happens. Give a megalomaniac enough room and he/she will run amok.
ReplyDeleteThis is not surprising. Go to the West Australian newspaper archives and look up Bradley Martin, a former police detective who bashed up and tortured an alleged suspect in the 1990s. Martin spent only a few months in prison for something many would have spent a few years in gaol for. The system over there is screwed.
ReplyDeleteKarl O'Callaghan is lying again (what a surprise). His mighty statement, "We're not one step in front of where we were,'' and his reference to a supposedly similar result from the WAPOL's initial inquiry is pure fiction and extremely disingenuous (well, he does have a degree in media relations). He is relying on our increasingly apathetic public's anesthetized short memory span. The fact is, O'Callaghan and the WAPOL Professional Standards Division swept Spratt's complaint of Taser Torture under the carpet, notwithstanding the available video evidence of Police misconduct in 2008. It was the CCC, 2 years after the fact, who managed to get their hands on the footage (thanks to some very friendly guidance by MLA, John Quigley) that caused any meaningful inquiry to be made. Up until then, O'Callaghan had refused to discipline the offenders (Police Officers) and had actually promoted the main instigator shouting, 'Taser him again!' in the video.
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