Police Misconduct - Good Cop - Bad Cop
6 June 2017

Good Cop – Bad Cop — Police Misconduct, Crime and Corruption

 

I know that there are also good cops out there – I have been fortunate to have met a few. So, don’t get me wrong – they are not all as I am describing herein. But those who do not uphold their code should, and must, be exposed. This is to save other victims from falling prey to miscarriages of justice. Police Misconduct MUST be brought to an end!

“Corruption starts when we allow private interests to influence public duties.”
“All public servants, including police officers, are given powers and responsibilities to act in the interest of the community.”
“No person or organisation can fight corruption on their own.  We all have a role to play.”

The statements above are made by members of the Crime and Corruption Commission (CCC). But who actually ensures these principles are maintained?
Sad to say, I have a very biased viewpoint on this topic. The number of serious incidents in which I have witnessed actions and behaviour by public servants, across several departments, is large. This behaviour has been far from appropriate. It is most definitely heavily tainted by private and personal viewpoints of the respective members.

The Australian Public Service (APS) is the Australian federal civil service, currently established under the Public Service Act 1999. People employed in the APS workforce work in public administration roles within Australian Government departments and agencies. In aggregate, APS organisations provide information, services and support to almost every part of Australian life. With a staff of over 150,000 people, the Australian Public Service is one of Australia’s largest employers.
Geoff Gallop describes the spectrum of activities undertaken by staff in the APS as fitting into four work functions: service delivery; law making, rule making and policy development; tax collection and managing government finance; and monitoring and enforcing laws and regulations. (From Wikipedia)

It doesn’t take too much effort to work out that these public servants infiltrate every aspect of every human’s life. It is kind of like God, wouldn’t you say!! Too many of them tend to seek power in their roles. Hence the corruption and misconduct takes hold. People with narcissistic personality disorder exhibit a long-term pattern of abnormal behaviour. This is characterised by exaggerated feelings of self-importance, an excessive need for admiration, and a lack of understanding of others’ feelings. People affected by it often spend a lot of time thinking about achieving power or success. They often take advantage of the people around them.  People with the disorder frequently do not consider themselves to have a problem. Narcissists have a knack for getting into positions of power and authority. How is an individual citizen able to receive fair play up against these personalities?

The Police Force is at the threshold of the administration of criminal justice. Official misconduct by police officers can cripple the system. Police officers’ special training, powers, authorities and opportunities can be abused. This makes misconduct more destructive and difficult to combat.

Sadly, there are basically no avenues of recourse to prevent or punish inappropriate police behaviour. A tight block is maintained on investigations. This means that there are a vast number of people in our society who have fallen victim to shocking police behaviour. As a result, there are no solutions open to them.

I cite below some correspondence I shared with several senior police detectives after they opened my cold case in 2014

(I am blocking real names for confidentiality purposes):

│Detective Senior Sergeant
Crime Command | Sexual Crime Squad | Victoria Police

(Detective) As we discussed there is nothing I can do for you in relation to the complaint against xxxxxx and the way you were treated back in the day. I advise you to get some legal advice on what civil course of action can be taken.

(Mikky) I am at a loss as to understanding why you are unable to do anything about xxxxxx, because he was in fact a member of the police force and had levels of conduct that was required of him, but which he failed to uphold, in that he violated my rights, abused his power and drastically neglected to protect me – to nominate just a few of the issues I was put through.
I cannot understand how this can be swept under the mat, regardless of the time that has elapsed??
Are you able to explain this to me please?

(Detective) It isn’t being swept under the mat at all. As per our conversation they are no longer employees of Victoria Police and as such I’m not sure what I can do? They cant be disciplined or demoted?  That’s why I advise you to seek legal advice and civil action if you feel that is necessary.
My Inspector is a former Manager of our Ethical Standards Department so I will speak to him about this and get back to you.
“there is nothing I can do for you in relation to the complaint against xxxxxx and the way you were treated back in the day”
(Mikky) I know you had said when we spoke that you advised I look into taking legal action, but that is so costly that it is definitely above my means.  Your comment in your earlier email had said “there is nothing I can do for you in relation to the complaint against xxxxxx and the way you were treated back in the day”, so that is what concerns me because even though xxxxxx is no longer a member of the Police, he certainly was at the time, as was the other guy – and I would have thought someone needs to take responsibility for his actions. The Police force should be held responsible if he cannot be disciplined now he has retired.  Victoria Police has the funds to take that sort of action against xxxxxx , whereas I don’t, so because of my lack of money several people will get away with illegal behaviour.
That seems very unjust to me.
If by some stroke of success we are able to discover the identity of the locksmith who attended my property, and also if the DNA is a match … what then?  Will xxxxxx need to answer to the reasons he acted as he did and allowed that guy to get away with his crime for 24 years?  I would hope so.

 

 
(Detective) I have discussed this with my Inspector and confirmed there is nothing we can do for
you in relation to the original complaint (relating to your treatment by the original investigator(s) back in 1990), as they have long retired/resigned.

He advises that this matter could be dealt with by our professional standards command (PSC) who is the actual area that you originally emailed regarding your first complaint. As such I have cc’d xxxxx in on this email and left her a message to call me. I suggest you liaise with them about that issue.

In relation to the locksmiths enquiry – I will get back to you when we are finished with that. Our investigators have gone to the public library to find old yellow pages/local newspapers and are conducting a few other enquiries. This may take some time and they also have other investigations that they are conducting. So please be patient.
Talk soon and take care
 
(Mikky) Thanks for the further update xxxx, but of course I am very disillusioned to hear what you have to say.  Regardless of the length of time since the officers’ actions, it still occurred. 
 
I classify it in the same category as the handling of the case – your currently employed officers have brought this all back into the light of day as a cold case, so if ever any questions are going to be asked of any perpetrator, we are discussing things back in history 24 years … but does that matter with crime? 
I thought not. So why then does it have any relevance on parties in the police force who have behaved outside the scope of regulations?  In fact, if they had done their job as they should back then, the case would most likely have been solved 24 years ago!! I would not be forced to go through this turmoil all over again!
As regards me contacting PSC, I am not actually sure where they fit in. Who are they, and why did you became involved instead of them? I certainly have spoken to xxxxx on a couple of occasions.  I would very much appreciate understanding how things fit together, and I would hope to perhaps get some action there, if at all possible.
If the PSC is the same as IBAC – then IBAC have come back to me with this comment:
 
“After consideration of the information provided IBAC has decided that your complaint does not warrant investigation.”In make the following note relation to the locksmiths. I understand that your officers have their own ways of dealing, but I did send you a decent sized list of locksmiths who were in business at the time of the crime. I am puzzled as to why none of that has been actioned as yet?  Have any questions been asked of any of them as yet?
The whole matter is very traumatic for me, with nothing ever being done, other than asking me to be patient because everyone is busy with current investigations.
 
(Detective) No time frame unfortunately. This is one of about 18 active investigations that this team (4 x members) is working on. Most of the others are current day sexual assaults.
Have passed on the info below to the team for follow up.
(Mikky) Thanks for your response.
I am of course aware that mine is not the only case you are handling. But you did choose to open it in February, so a lot of time has already passed as it is now mid September.  It is not easy from my side either, because all  those months expand into a huge amount of time ticking by as I anxiously await progress. So of course I will always keenly look forward to any further details from you.
My upset rests heavily on the fact that when this was a ‘current day sexual assault‘,where you obviously place your emphasis, all evidence was ruined by xxxxxx. If he had done the job according to the requirements of his position, you and I, and all your team, would never even need to be in contact with each other. That would certainly be a much more attractive manner in which to have been living my life!
 
(Detective) 1000% agree xxxxxx has a lot to answer for! Talk soon……
(Detective) I actually had a chat about this file yesterday (22 October) with the team. Have a read of the attached document from the investigator. In summary you will see from the enquires made that records of employees are not available. Obviously now days current legislation makes companies keep records of workers and work done. Furthermore no details of the company directors etc are on file.
This really is needle in a haystack type work. In summary we are trying to find a man who attended your premises over 20 years ago and the company who he worked for (or sub contracted for) no longer exists. It appears as if he may have been a locksmith or even a carpenter (GREYTHORN or HARCROS) as mentioned in the report? You could imagine that over that time this company would have done 1000’s of jobs and used many different employees?

I’m very sorry but I’m not sure that is much more we can do in relation to this avenue of enquiry?
The best case scenario was for the company records to have been available or the manager/owner to be able to supply us with a list of the workers and we would get a DNA sample off each of them. But this can’t be done as we have no idea how many staff their were, or who they are?
This would effectively mean that this file will again be filed away unsolved. The DNA profile of the unknown male offender remains on the data base and we hope that one day this person is processed for a crime which matches up to this?
The investigator has gone through the whole file and there is no mention of a locksmith’s name and she has also personally spoken to xxxxxx as well. In your email below you say that you did give him the name at the time – I’m curious as to how you know his actual name? Do you recall? Its obviously not on the receipt but would it have been he told you? Or otherwise?
 
Again very sorry to give you this news but at this point in time all avenues of enquiry have been exhausted in relation to this locksmith task.
(Mikky) To answer your queries …..
I can only guess that I had the lock person’s name at that time, although I have no recollection of his name. Nor have I any records other than what I gave you, being that receipt.  To be frank though – xxxxxx needs to be strung up for his shocking handling of this case.  His words to me always ring in my ears, after I continually pleaded with him to question the lock fellow.  As I have told you before, xxxxxx said to me that he “wouldn’t bring the man in for questioning. He definitely wouldn’t put him in a line up because he was a good living Christian family man and (xxxxxx) wouldn’t dishonour him with that action.”
 
I begged xxxxxx to put him in a line-up so that I could identify him. 
xxxxxx retorted with the comment noted above. He said that I wouldn’t be able to identify the man because I had not seen him because he had my head covered the whole time.  I responded to xxxxxx by saying that I would be able to sense the man by his smell and facial feel. I believed that he had a large nose and that he smoked and drank a lot.
xxxxxx’s behaviour and refusal disgusted me at the time, but does so even more now.  xxxxxx is a blatant liar!!  He lied and perjured himself in court, abusing my good character to taint it in front of the court system.  He told them I smoked and drank all through his questioning. These were blatant and shocking lies!!  I will have xxxxxx brought to justice. And the Police system, for the lack of attention to me as the victim of this disgusting crime!  xxxxxx simply wanted to show me to the courts as a bad character. He did his utmost to try to prove that there was never even a crime committed. Is that what a member of the Police force should be able to get away with?
Please don’t ever believe that I will back down from this.  xxxxxx’s crime was many times worse than the rapist!  If it takes me the rest of my life, I will pursue this to bring justice.

 

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