Police Minister Corbell is yet again trying to ‘spin’ the poor performance of ACT Policing and the level of complaints made against it last financial year (Ombudsman reports 17pc rise in police complaints -Canberra Times 26 Sep).
He attributes the 17% rise in complaints to poor watch house procedures and the lack of training.
Yet what is his response? He just signed the policing contract that removes the measure for complaints against police and the contract does not refer to either improving the police training regime or increasing the number of experienced officers from the very low 40% with more than 5 years experience; NSW has 64%.
Next year there will be no headline as there is no contractual measure of complaints against an AFP bureaucracy that treats the ACT community with disdain?
Lance Williamson (Canberra Times Letter)