NSW: High-ranking police officers blamed for corruption

AAP General News (Australia)
12-18-2001
NSW: High-ranking police officers blamed for corruption

By Roz King

SYDNEY, Dec 18 AAP - A senior NSW policeman today blamed high-ranking northern Sydney
police for failing to notice a handful of corrupt cops in their midst.

Commander Graeme Morgan headed the North Metropolitan Region from 1997 to 2000, during
which two Manly police officers stole tens of thousands of dollars and received regular
bribes from drug dealers.

Detective senior constables David Patison and Matthew Jasper were arrested last December
and both have admitted to their actions at the Police Integrity Commission (PIC) inquiry.

Several other Manly police have also confessed at the inquiry to accepting money.

Cdr Morgan today told the inquiry he was disappointed and angry when he found out about
the corruption.

"There was a failure at the practitioner level, there was a failure at the supervisory
level, there was a failure at the senior supervisory level," he said.

"Audit processes that ought to have caught those failures haven't."

He also blamed himself for not having done more to prevent money from being stolen
during drug raids.

"One of my regrets is that I did not hone in on particularly the practices associated
with the execution of search warrants," he told the inquiry.

"I could have. I didn't."

After the Wood Royal Commission in 1997 there were "30 or 40" police officers in the
region who were under consideration for dismissal, Cdr Morgan said.

But despite regular meetings, written plans and audits, the region never officially
formulated a step-by-step action plan to deal with corruption.

"In terms of sitting down and saying we need to do this and this and this, I can't
say that I did that," he said.

He said he was aware Detective Patison had been the subject of an internal affairs
inquiry in 1998 and was one of the "at-risk" police officers.

But this did not prevent Patison's promotion from general duties to drug-related detective
work at the beginning of last year.

Patison earlier told the PIC the stress and temptation of the drug work caused him
to slip back into corruption.

But Cdr Morgan today rejected Patison's explanations.

"I couldn't agree with much Patison had to say about anything," Cdr Morgan said.

"I think there was a lot of rationalisation going on."

Morgan said he still believed the NSW Police Service's anti-corruption tactics were satisfactory.

"I don't know of a better system anywhere else," he said.

The hearing resumes January 30.

AAP rk/arb/mg/br

KEYWORD: PIC

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