November 11, 2007
Something smells in the state of Victoria---it's the police yet again and there are more corruption allegations, this time about undermining the Office of Police Integrity hearings through breaching confidentiality around a criminal investigation. These new claims involve Assistant Commissioner Noel Ashby, the Chief Commissioner's media minder, Stephen Linnell, and police union chief Paul Mullett.
There have been more than 20 royal commissions and other inquiries into the Victorian Police, who are becoming more corrupt, secretive and unaccountable.

Peter Brookes
The Office of Police Integrity - an offshoot of the Ombudsman's office - has being investigating possible links between corrupt police and organised crime, including allegations that corrupt officers had protected underworld figures. The state Government, which has consistently rejected growing pressure for a royal commission in 2004, opted instead to set up the Office of Police Integrity.
The current scandal is part of the saga involving links between police and gangland criminals, the shutting down of the e Drug Squad amid widespread corruption and the Armed Offenders Squad over claims of improper behaviour. Ashby and Linnell now both face possible criminal charges, including perjury and perverting the course of justice.
What of Mullett? Is he politically untouchable? The transcripts.
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Gary,
My impression is that the Victorian Police and the Victorian Labor Government do not want an independent wide-ranging judicial inquiry into police corruption, such as was had in Queensland and NSW.
Why so? They know that it would reveal what they don't want revealed--- Victoria's police force is riddled with deep-seated and continuing corruption that needs to be cleaned out. It's a big task.