OPI warns of corrupt Vic police cells

(AAP) Cells of corrupt Victorian police officers who associate with criminals, including former colleagues, exert a damaging influence over the force, the police watchdog says.

The Office of Police Integrity (OPI) tabled its annual report in the Victorian
parliament on Thursday saying its major priority was the "improper associations"
that exist between former police and serving officers.
It also says many of those former and serving police have joined forces with people
with extensive criminal histories.
OPI director and former County Court judge Michael Strong said the main illegal
activity these people were involved in was "information trading".
"Many police share snippets of information with no particular goal, from habit, to
big-note themselves, or just for the sake of something to talk about," Mr Strong
said in his report.
"Some police appear to have little, if any, understanding of, or concern for, the
potential damage to ongoing investigations this type of information sharing can
have.
"In extreme cases lives can be, and have been, put in jeopardy."
The OPI has had more publicity in the last year than ever before through public
hearings into police accused of improper associations and information trading.
Last month, it recommended criminal charges be laid against former drug squad
detective Paul Dale, in connection with the murder of police informer Terence Hodson
and his wife, Christine.
He was accused of leaking information to criminals that Hodson was a police
informer, while the OPI criticised the relationship he still had with serving
Detective Sergeant Dennis Linehan, also possibly facing criminal charges.
A month before that, former assistant commissioner Noel Ashby, the police union
secretary Paul Mullett and one-time police media unit boss Stephen Linnell had a
combined total of more than 50 charges, including perjury and perverting the course
of justice, laid against them following an OPI investigation.
Mr Strong said investigating improper criminal associations would be the OPI's main
focus over the next 12 months, along with creating an environment that better
resists corruption.
"Our workload investigating allegations of corruption and criminal conduct continues
to increase," he said.
"Supervisors in high-risk policing areas should adopt an intrusive management style
and actively monitor their staff."
Victoria Police Ethical Standards Department Assistant Commissioner Luke Cornelius
said the vast majority of police were ethical but a small number of officers still
did "not get it".
However, the message appeared to be getting through that corrupt police would be
caught, Mr Cornelius said.
"It is increasingly clear to my colleagues ... that there's nowhere to run, nowhere
to hide," he said.
"We have to break the code of silence, we have to get to a point where police
appreciate that if you lie, you won't get away with it, you will be found out and
you will be held accountable."
Mr Strong also criticised a police culture of loyalty to fellow officers accused of
wrongdoing replacing loyalty to upholding the law, which he partly blamed on the
Police Association.
Police Association secretary-designate Greg Davies said the union did not tolerate
corruption.
"We have never supported corrupt activity and we never will - our members don't want
to work with corrupt police," Mr Davies told reporters.
"Less than half of one per cent of our members are suspended from duty at any one
time, therefore more than 99-and-a-half per cent of our members are not under
suspicion of criminal or corrupt activity."