Reporter: Quentin Dempster
Broadcast: 02/07/2004
This was officially observed this week by the Police Integrity Commission.
Based on an extensive covert surveillance operation called 'Florida', in which a rolled-over police officer gathered devastating evidence of police greenlighting drug distribution, loading, stealing, verballing and assault the PIC has also exposed a failure of police management and supervision.
Worse, it has declared that it will be difficult to change the corrupt police culture.
QUENTIN DEMPSTER: In late 1998, a NSW police officer, code-named M5, rolled over to the State Crime Commission.
He's the one on the right in this surveillance video, handing over money wrapped in a newspaper.
M5 PIC INFORMANT: It was very conflicting in some ways.
Um, you know, there were some things that I was asked to do that I wasn't happy doing.
QUENTIN DEMPSTER: A massive and long-running covert operation was mounted around M5, based initially on the northern beaches of Sydney.
Evidence gathered led to other covert operations involving corrupt conduct and criminality from the late 1980s to 2001.
418 corrupt incidents were identified.
Incredibly, investigators were able to maintain the secrecy of their operations for four years until the first public hearings in October 2001.
This is the list of corrupt and criminal conduct exposed: Soliciting and receiving bribes from drug dealers.
'Greenlighting' drug trafficking .
Stealing cash and property .
Reducing charges in return for payment .
Perverting the course of justice .
Assaulting suspects .
'Verballing' suspects .
'Loading' suspects .
Organising or 'greenlighting' break and enter offences Six police officers have since been convicted.
40 former and 3 serving officers were found to have acted corruptly.
14 of 32 identified serving officers left the police, 11 as a direct result of the investigation.
Nothing's changed with police culture?
SGT BOB PRITCHARD, POLICE ASSOCIATION: Well, in fact, I think there's been a great change since the royal commission days.
People now are more willing to come forward and identify corrupt practices at their workplace.
QUENTIN DEMPSTER: Sergeant Bob Pritchard, 25 years service, is the new president of the 15,000-member NSW Police Association.
What's the union done to help change the corrupt police culture?
SGT BOB PRITCHARD: Well, certainly, we've put it out there, we've changed a number of our rules to ensure that corrupt police, when they're identified, are certainly not supported by the union.
QUENTIN DEMPSTER: You don't give them any legal support?
SGT BOB PRITCHARD: Certainly not where it's identified they have not carried out their job professionally.
We are here to look after honest members.
QUENTIN DEMPSTER: The disturbing aspect of Wood Royal Commission was the declaration that corruption in the NSW Police was entrenched and systemic.
Does that descriptor still apply?
KEN MORONEY, COMMISSIONER OF POLICE: No, I don't believe so.
Is there corrupt activity?
Yes, there is.
Are we seeking to root it out?
Yes, we are.
And I'm not only being supported by the three oversight agencies, I'm being supported by the courts.
By the District Court and by magistrates in local courts.
Because that's the only way we're going to address this issue.
QUENTIN DEMPSTER: When police are prosecuted?
KEN MORONEY: When corruption is identified and police officers are prosecuted.
But the significant change which leads us to that conclusion, or leads me to that conclusion, is the fact that corrupt activity, in its many and varied forms, is in the main identified by other police officers.
And that I see as the most significant change in the culture of the organisation that I have known for almost 40 years.
QUENTIN DEMPSTER: In spite of Commissioner Moroney and Sergeant Pritchard's claims that police culture has changed for the better since the Wood Royal Commission, a question remains.
Why did the Police Integrity Commission make such a pointed reference to police culture in its formal report released just this week, June 2004?
"The issue of culture in a police service is complex.
The Royal Commission identified and commented on many factors that contribute to the negative aspects of police culture.
Those findings need not be repeated.
However, the evidence given in the Operation Florida investigation indicates that there was not an instant transformation of the culture of NSW Police following the Royal Commission and that it will be difficult to bring about such a change."
In 2002, 'Four Corners' reporter Chris Masters secured a rare interview with one of the police exposed through Operation Florida, Detective Sergeant Ray Peattie, convicted and jailed for having accepted bribes.
Mr Peattie reminded us of the cynicism running deep within the culture from the '70s and '80s when he described an officer's interview with a potential recruit for a detectives squad.
RAY PEATTIE, FORMER DETECTIVE ('FOUR CORNERS' 2002): He asked the person if he was prepared to verbal people.
And the bloke said, "Certainly not, sir."
He said, "Are you prepared to bash people to get an admission off them?"
He said, "Certainly not, sir."
"Are you prepared to rob them?"
"No, sir, definitely not."
He said, "Well, what the **** are you coming here for?"
And the bloke said, "Oh, I would, I didn't know what answers.
"I thought that was the answers you wanted."
QUENTIN DEMPSTER: Our political leaders assert that things have changed since the Wood Royal Commission and the corruption exposed through Operation Florida.
But the PIC analysis also pinpointed a contemporary failure of police management and supervision.
Evidence showed that standard operating procedures requiring the video-taping of drug searches under warrant had been ignored.
The police video or exhibit officer meant to follow procedures, in one case, would on the nod from his colleagues, switch the camera off, giving them a chance to trouser a lot of the drug money they found.
"The commission considers that a high trust model of supervision is inadequate and inappropriate for corruption prevention, and that police officers at the operational level must take a greater responsibility for ensuring that corrupt officers are exposed."
SGT BOB PRITCHARD: It shows that in the past there has been a problem with supervision and it shows that where supervision is lax it allows corrupt practice to breed.
And where in fact, and it shows within that Florida report, that where people are supervised properly and there is intrusive supervision, it shows that there is a lesser chance of people carrying out corrupt conduct.
QUENTIN DEMPSTER: Commissioner, do you acknowledge there's been a failure of supervision?
KEN MORONEY: Ah, certainly in Mascot Florida there was.
There was failure at command level.
There was failure in supervision.
And it's important that we learn from these lessons.
I'm not going to hide from the facts.
QUENTIN DEMPSTER: The PIC also questioned the effectiveness of the 24-hour duty officer structure, introduced at great cost to the public of NSW as a managerial watchdog on corrupt police behaviour.
"Evidence was heard that the introduction of this new position might not have achieved this aim.
NSW Police undertook to conduct a review of the position and provided the Commission with the details of that review.
The information provided did not include any details about an evaluation of the position."
KEN MORONEY: The deputy commissioner of operations, David Madden, is currently completing that evaluation.
Subject to that, I would anticipate there will be some further strengthening of that particular role and function.
QUENTIN DEMPSTER: Commissioner, do you feel that you have been called to account on a failure of managerial supervision by the PIC?
KEN MORONEY: Yes.
I've been called to account.
And I have no difficulty in providing that accountability, not only to the Police Integrity Commission but equally as important to the community of NSW.
QUENTIN DEMPSTER: Opposition Police Spokesman Peter Debnam has been complaining for months now about the resourcing of detectives and the level of police management commitment to exposing corruption.
PETER DEBNAM, OPPOSITION POLICE SPOKESMAN: My biggest concern is there is a culture of cover-up still within the Government and NSW Police.
Even on an issue like integrity testing, where I asked last year, "Just give me the numbers for the last three years "on how many you've done," they couldn't even answer that question.
Now, that's a clear message to all NSW Police that they're not going to be honest, they're not going to be transparent in delivering information to the public.
Well, that's what we need to change on day one, introduce transparency, honesty, accountability.
QUENTIN DEMPSTER: Commissioner, are random integrity tests still being carried out?
KEN MORONEY: Yes, they're an important part of our integrity regime as we move towards ensuring that there is ethical conduct in the organisation.
QUENTIN DEMPSTER: Well, why hasn't Mr Debnam been given the figures?
KEN MORONEY: I'm not aware of why that may be the case but I want to reassure the community that we are conducting those tests.
We are conducting investigations, and indeed, there's been a rigorous regime over the last 12 months, in particular, seeking to identify those officers engaged in inappropriate or illegal conduct.
QUENTIN DEMPSTER: How many?
KEN MORONEY: Well, there have been some 60 operations, and a number of those developed into specific integrity tests.
QUENTIN DEMPSTER: There's more bad publicity coming for NSW Police.
The union's already bracing for it.
QUENTIN DEMPSTER: How big a problem is drug use amongst the younger police?
SGT BOB PRITCHARD: Well, certainly it's been identified over the past couple of years as being a problem.
It's being addressed and there is an inquiry currently taking place.
So, until the end of that inquiry, we're still uncertain as to the total extent of that use but certainly, it's admitted there is a problem.
QUENTIN DEMPSTER: Another integrity commission operation, code-named Abelia is looking at the apparently high incidence of recreational drug use -- cannabis, cocaine and amphetamines -- among serving police officers, including criminal supply and distribution networks.
The median age of police officers nowadays is 28.
Where alcoholism was a contributing factor in corrupt police behaviour in the past, it now appears drug use and abuse could be as big, if not a bigger problem.
QUENTIN DEMPSTER: How big's the problem?
KEN MORONEY: Well, that's the purpose of the inquiry, to gauge the extent of the problem, but clearly we do have a problem amongst our police officers.
And it may be indicative that it's representative of the broader problem of elicit drug abuse in the community.
That doesn't bring me any joy but I know full well that I've got to seek to identify those officers who are engaged in that level of misconduct.
Um, I'm working towards that.
I've sent a very clear message to my officers.
In my opening statement to the Commission, I indicated that there is a zero tolerance, on my part, in terms of illicit drug abuse.
Clearly what distinguishes the police officer from the member of the community who might engage in similar sort of conduct is that our officers have an oath of office, they discharge powers of arrest, they are armed, and that, to my mind, brings a greater requirement for compliance on their part.
QUENTIN DEMPSTER: So stand by for evidence of drug-running police officers in charge of guns and high-speed cars.
It seems the community wants to be able to trust the police but that trust is still being betrayed.
