Comments on: What a hero

By: Tony

Tony — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 00:57:01 +0000

Yep, I feel sorry for this bloke, his story sounds very familiar, not that i went through anything like this, but i personally know people who have. Its a big decision, weather to speak out or not, police careers have been made and broken on such decisions.

By: Amy

Amy — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 04:14:15 +0000

Interesting - here is a somewhat related link about a Queensland officer who claims he was ordered to take sick leave because he is a whistleblower:

By: Tony

Tony — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 05:16:30 +0000

They certainly should have, whether they would have or not…..
it depends on a number of factors.
The relative rank of the two – junior police are often reluctant to tell more senior officers that their actions are not right. The rank structure is very respected.
Strength of character – The cops, because of the nature of the job, is full of “alpha dogs” and sometimes actions like these are all about asserting that persons authority over the other cops as well as the civilians.
Not wishing to be labelled as a “dobber” – Telling someone to pull their head in is a bit different to being a fully blown “whistleblower” but its easy to be tarred with the same brush.
I guess in the end it comes down to a matter of conscience.
It has been shown through various royal commissions etc that if a police officer stands by and does nothing while their partner does something corrupt or illegal they will be charged with the same offences, often they are treated even more harshly than the offender.

By: Amy

Amy — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 23:50:35 +0000

Tony, a question I’ve often wondered about – If another police officer had been there when this happened and they thought that the officer in question’s actions were wrong, would it be acceptable for them to tell them to “leave it” or would they feel obligated to back up the other police no matter what?

By: Tony

Tony — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 23:43:28 +0000

Dodgy, bully boy (or girl) coppers like these were part of the reason I left the cops. This lady was lucky that she was a lawyer and knew her rights. “It should be noted that at the time of dealing with the person of interest police were unaware of the exact offence” – this is just as dodgy as the original actions – at the time of arrest police MUST tell you the real reason for your arrest. I cant begin to think about all of the things wrong with the police actions in this story.
A word of advice people, if you are going to complain about police do it in writing, keep copies and lodge your complaint with the ombudsman not the local police commander. This will at least ensure that some record is kept and even if the ombo refers it back to the local command to investigate they will have to report their actions to the ombo who will report to you.
Dont get me wrong, most cops are decent, hardworking people but corrupt dodgy bastards like these are there in enough numbers to make life difficult for the good coppers and to seriously damage the publics perception of the police. They are are not doing nearly enough to weed these types out.