Should police investigate police? A police corruption watchdog's report on the way police investigate complaints against its members in one state force has raised serious concerns about the "willingness" to do the job properly. Western Australia's Corruption and Crime Commission says WA Police has handled a number of serious complaints "very poorly" and displayed a lack of willingness to investigate, supervise or control the quality of investigations.

The criticisms were in a CCC report released yesterday into progress on reforms being made by WA Police following that state's royal commission into police corruption. It pointed to continuing problems with the "cultural attitudes" of police officers towards conducting internal investigations against fellow officers. "There is still a fair way to go before the various reforms motivate all police officers to willingly challenge the unethical, criminal or unsavoury behaviour of their colleagues," the CCC said. The report found that problems with internal investigations included:

* An avoidance of decision-making about whether allegations are founded;

* A consideration of specific allegations in a narrowly focussed, discrete manner without considering the individual officer's history;

* A focussed attack on the complainant rather than circumstances of the complaint; and

* Inconsistent decisions across the agency about suitable outcomes

It presented five case studies that it said displayed a "a lack of willingness and investigative competence". In one a female police sergeant had a string of complaints made against her in 2002 and 2003, including drug taking, drink driving, harassment and misusing the police data base. An internal investigation also uncovered evidence of the sergeant's involvement in criminal activity. But instead of being sacked, as some senior officers wanted, she was put on disciplinary charges. In May 2005 she was charged with drink driving after being involved in a collision, The process of sacking her was started, but this time she was saved by the intervention of an assistant commissioner. In September 2005 she was back under investigation again, this time for lying to the Chief Commissioner and during disciplinary interviews. Her future is still being decided by the Chief Commissioner.

"In the Commission's view, the case study illustrates the reluctance of senior and local managers to take decisive and appropriate action against errant officers," the CCC report said.

The report has again raised the issue of whether police can be trusted to investigate their own. In WA, as in other states, the vast majority of complaints against police are handled internally and reviewed by various corruption watchdogs. But is this system a case of the tail wagging the (watch)dog? Should police complaints be independently investigated?

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