COPS INQUIRY IS OVERDUE
ALMOST three decades have passed since the Fitzgerald Inquiry applied a blowtorch to crooked cops, criminals and politicians who were turning Queensland into a corrupt state.
The investigation was a watershed moment in the state’s history, exposing the rot and showing what needed to be done to put the state’s public administration and police systems back on track, and importantly restoring public faith in these.
Corrupt individuals were jailed, including the police commissioner of the day. It was a painful but necessary experience. The state was the better for it.
One of the lasting legacies came in the form of what is now the Crime and Corruption Commission.
But it could well be time for another inquiry, given what has emerged in the Rick Flori case. Prosecution of the former Gold Coast police sergeant came to a conclusion this week when – after the powers-that-be within “the system’’ pursued the whistleblower with all the power they could muster – a jury instead cleared him in the Southport District Court of misconduct for leaking to the media CCTV footage of the bashing of a handcuffed man by officers in the basement of the Surfers Paradise police station.
Officers involved were disciplined but escaped prosecution.
From the public’s perspective however, the police service instead used its energies to hunt down the source of the leaked material and then to prosecute Flori.
He faced up to seven years in jail if found guilty.
Queensland Civil Liberties Council vicepresident Terry O’Gorman yesterday called for an inquiry to determine why the officers involved in the bashing incident were not prosecuted. He also said it was time for a review of whether the Fitzgerald police accountability processes are still working.
The Bulletin agrees. Policing on the Gold Coast has been through considerable turmoil. We have called for an inquiry more than once, fearing that all is not well within an institution that is supposed to be protecting the public.
In separate Gold Coast incidents: whistleblowers who drew attention to fudged crime figures were shafted and moved out of Surfers Paradise; a senior officer faced charges of perjury and misconduct; the CCC referred 15 officers to the Ethical Standards unit for investigation for alleged misconduct and bullying; and frontline cops flat out on domestic violence matters were grilled about going into overtime.
The Flori investigation indicates problems with police culture. No matter how right they might be, officers who dare challenge the system or the behaviour of other police cross an invisible line that results in them being ostracised. Whistleblowers face a hard time. An internal inquiry has already been conducted into police culture, but its findings have not been released.
Commissioner Tony Fitzgerald was highly critical of the secrecy in what was once deemed “the moonlight state’’ of Queensland.
Transparency was a key theme in his recommendations. It is a lesson that should not be forgotten.