Catherine Burn's new duties are at odds with unresolved claims, writes Neil Mercer.
The NSW police Deputy Commissioner Catherine Burn this week becomes
responsible for specialist operations, putting her in charge of squads
such as homicide, counterterrorism and professional standards - which
used to be known as Special Crime and Internal Affairs (SCIA).
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| "May have participated in police corruption", according to a secret NSW police report ... Deputy Commissioner Catherine Burn. Photo: Michel O'Sullivan | |
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This move places her in a powerful position to succeed the
Commissioner, Andrew Scipione. But it also puts Burn in an invidious, if
not untenable, position.
Serious unanswered questions relating to her time in the
controversial SCIA unit more than a decade ago remain. Indeed, as
revealed in
The Sun-Herald, a secret NSW police report states Burn ''may have participated in police corruption'' while she worked there.
So how is it that Burn is now installed as the head of
internal affairs and in charge of the state's most experienced and
senior detectives with such serious claims still unresolved.
The report, by Strike Force Emblems, written in 2004, examined
complaints against Burn and three other SCIA officers who were involved
in an undercover operation on the north coast.
It said there was no evidence to bring criminal or disciplinary charges against her or the others and the
Herald does
not suggest Burn is corrupt. But, critically, the report also states
its inquiries hit a roadblock when it was denied access to crucial
documents and witnesses.
This was because, at the time, SCIA was running a covert
inquiry into police corruption code-named Operation Mascot and, as a
result of the NSW Crime Commission's involvement, the highest secrecy
provisions applied.
When Emblems detectives investigating Burn went knocking on
the crime commission's Kent Street door for help, it rolled down the
shutters.
Scipione says he has not read the Emblems report because of
the secrecy provisions. Why a report written by NSW police for the then
commissioner, Ken Moroney, is secret from the current commissioner
remains a mystery. Nevertheless Scipione, like Sergeant Schultz from
Hogan's Heroes, knows nothing.
But leaked documents reveal that Scipione received an email
in November 2001, explicitly warning him that some officers within SCIA
were worried about the legality of telephone taps and the release of
''fictitious information'' to obtain listening devices. There were other
serious concerns about wrongdoing. Scipione was SCIA's commander at
the time.
Some of those concerns expressed in 2001 were followed up by
the Emblems investigators. Its report found that ''criminal conduct''
and personal vendettas may have been behind one particular SCIA/crime
commission bugging operation in September 2000.
On September 14 that year, Justice Virginia Bell of the
Supreme Court approved an application for a listening device. It allowed
SCIA and the crime commission to bug a staggering 114 people over a
21-day period.
There is another problem that arises in all this. Ms Burn
must now work alongside senior commanders who, just 10 years ago, she
nominated as being corrupt. Ticklish, to say the least.
Scipione, Burn and the state government have refused calls
for an independent judicial inquiry. The matters, they say, are being
looked into by the Inspector of the Police Integrity Commission, David
Levine, a former Supreme Court judge.
At best, this is disingenuous. Levine has told Parliament
he is looking at whether Emblems' report, or its recommendations, can
be released. When this reporter asked him if he was only working one
day a week as Inspector of the Police Integrity Commission, he declined
to comment.
Levine does not have the time or resources to explore and
resolve the serious matters raised by Emblems, including those
involving Burn.
It appears the Premier, Barry O'Farrell, is being poorly
advised. This matter has been going for 10 years and it will not go
away.
A judicial inquiry is needed. The serving and former police affected deserve the truth and so do the people of NSW.
