TV PROGRAM TRANSCRIPT
Broadcast: 23/10/2006
KERRY O'BRIEN: Another former member of
Victoria's disgraced drug squad was sent to jail today, the sixth member
of the squad to be jailed on corruption charges, Senior Constable
Matthew Bunning, sentenced to nearly seven years. Chief Commissioner
Christine Nixon has hailed the convictions as evidence that the Victoria
Police is capable of cleaning up its own act. But that's not the view
of one of her senior corruption investigators. In an extraordinary break
with convention, Detective Sergeant Bill Patten has spoken publicly
about what he sees as the force's failure to pursue other corrupt
police. Detective Sergeant Patten, who was a member of the Ceja task
force set up to investigate the Victorian Drug Squad, says he believes
Victoria should follow the lead of other States with a royal commission
or a standing commission to investigate police corruption. Josie Taylor
reports.
DET SGT BILL PATTEN: I was absolutely devastated. Mind-blown, blown away. It just it really guts you. And some of these people I knew. I mean, you see one side of people, you just have no idea and the gravity of it was just mind boggling.
JOSIE TAYLOR: Detective Sergeant Bill Patten has seen a lot in 28 years of police work. But nothing prepared him for what he was to encounter as an anti corruption investigator within Victoria Police.
BILL PATTEN: We just kept standing on landmines, everywhere we went it was just it was far worse than what the picture had been painted.
JOSIE TAYLOR: Described by his former Senior Sergeant as an "uncompromising perfectionist who never backs away from a challenge", Bill Patten was handpicked to join the top secret Ceja task force set up in 2002 after two drug squad members were found to be corrupt and the squad was disbanded. Bill Patten says the task force uncovered an extensive web of corruption.
BILL PATTEN: Police were trafficking drugs. They were offering protection to informers. They were involved with the distribution and manufacture of amphetamines. Obviously large quantities of cash, I'd say, were being kept by corrupt policemen.
JOSIE TAYLOR: Police command has always denied a link between police corruption and Melbourne's underworld murders. But Bill Patten is convinced corrupt police engaged in the drug trade fueled the gangland war.
BILL PATTEN: Corruption is - and it crosses over. So whether you say you're going to feed information to somebody else and someone gets murdered as a result of that information, or in the old term of burning an informer where you use an informer, you then feed him back to the criminal element and you let them know that he's been informing to the police - well, I'd suggest a number of those gangland murders were as a result of that. And I don't think there's any secrets in that
JOSIE TAYLOR: In the face of this, the Ceja task force achieved some impressive results. So far six former drug squad detectives have been convicted on various corruption offences, including dealing millions of dollars worth of heroin, protecting drug dealers and money laundering. The biggest scalp was the conviction of Detective Senior Sergeant Wayne Strachan last week on a charge of selling to Mark Moran, himself a victim of the bloody turf war. The convictions were seen as a cleanout of corrupt officers in the Victoria Police.
CHRISTINE NIXON: A terrific team of people who I think have done an outstanding job to bring these matters before the court and now most of those, in fact, are finished and we're able to see that these people have been convicted and out of Victoria Police.
JOSIE TAYLOR: But according to corruption investigators like Bill Patten, the task of cleaning up the force is nowhere near complete.
BILL PATTEN: A lot of that stuff, not for the wrong reasons but because of resourcing, has never been appropriately dealt with in the appropriate timeframes, because some of the stuff there's no good looking at it now. It's been and gone. You've missed the boat.
JOSIE TAYLOR: How frustrating is that for you?
BILL PATTEN: Again, you've got no idea. It just seems ludicrous. There was things there that were ready to go that were never looked at.
JOSIE TAYLOR: Chief Commissioner Christine Nixon declined a request from the 7.30 Report to respond to Detective Sergeant Bill Patten's claim that corrupt officers remain in the force.
BILL PATTEN: I'd put a figure between 12 and 24 that I could confidently say are either corrupt or contributed to corruption.
JOSIE TAYLOR: Still serving?
BILL PATTEN: Still serving.
JOSIE TAYLOR: So how far up the ranks does this go?
BILL PATTEN: Well, I think I'd go as far as superintendent.
JOSIE TAYLOR: Bill Patten is quick to point out corruption within the police force is limited to a small number of offenders. But he says force command has failed to tackle corruption at its highest levels.
BILL PATTEN: I have a very strong belief that commissioned officers have been protected. They've never been duly dealt with and I say that not for the wrong reasons. Some have sat on the fence - and it's been poor management practice. Some have been corrupt, some have sat on the fence and not blown the whistle.
JOSIE TAYLOR: He says part of the problem was access to Chief Commissioner Christine Nixon.
BILL PATTEN: Personally I thought it would have been important for her to sit much closer to it than what she did. But my own honest opinion is, because of the management process and the gravity of what might have come out of it, I believe that she distanced herself from what may have come out of it.
JOSIE TAYLOR: Despite calls for a royal commission, the job of pursuing police corruption in Victoria is still handled by internal investigators, and the State Government's Office of Police Integrity. Victorian Premier Steve Bracks remains unwilling to change his approach, despite Bill Patten's allegations.
STEVE BRACKS: Well, I reject that. I think corruption is being properly investigated and that's one of the reasons why we established the OPI, the Office of Police Integrity.
JOSIE TAYLOR: But so far Bill Patten has seen little evidence that this system is effective.
BILL PATTEN: My own honest opinion is there should have been a royal commission or a standing commission in relation to corruption in Victoria Police. Unquestionably, and with the benefit of hindsight, what I've endured and what other Victoria Police members have endured as investigators, and for the integrity of Victoria Police, I definitely believe there should have been something other than Ceja.
JOSIE TAYLOR: The traditional resentment towards police who are investigating police was made clear to the Ceja task force members.
BILL PATTEN: During the course of Ceja there was death threats made towards members. We had bullets left in one member's letterbox engraved with his name and his wife's name. We had a crook, the piranha, picked up that had basically a third of our fleet of vehicles with the registration numbers in his wallet. We had information from the underworld saying that someone was going to do a hit on one of the investigators to throw the whole thing into a spin.
JOSIE TAYLOR: The Ceja task force was shut down last year. Task force members were told they'd have help to reintegrate with the force, help Bill Patten claims was not forthcoming.
BILL PATTEN: We went into Ceja and did a tough job. We were made a number of promises by high level management, including Christine Nixon, and I'd say those promises have never been followed up with. We've never been duly supported and we've been forgotten about.
JOSIE TAYLOR: Late today, the Chief Commissioner issued a statement declaring that members of the task force had been provided with significant support, including welfare assistance. Despite that, Bill Patten's career is probably over. His appointment to a country police station is being challenged in the Supreme Court, a challenge funded by his own union, the Victorian Police Association.
BILL PATTEN: Well, here I am now. I'm about to leave Victoria Police after 28 years, a job that I loved and I lived for and, my wife will tell you, to the detriment of my family. We were handpicked to do a tough job and the fallout is, here I am suffering stress and anxiety.
JOSIE TAYLOR: Bill Patten is well aware going public with his story could endanger his life and his family.
BILL PATTEN: At the end of the day you're vulnerable, you're always vulnerable and what I've done and what I've said, people aren't going to be happy.
JOSIE TAYLOR: There is the added frustration that while Detective Sergeant Bill Patten might leave the force, corrupt officers will remain in it.
BILL PATTEN: How ironic is that? The people that investigate it have become casualties, while they continue. It just doesn't seem right. But I mean, you've got to get beyond that. That is the way it is and you've got to move on or else you get bitter and twisted about it. That's part of one of my strengths. No point getting bitter and twisted. What's happened, greater powers than me have decided how it was going to be dealt with and how it was going to finish, and that's where we're at now.
DET SGT BILL PATTEN: I was absolutely devastated. Mind-blown, blown away. It just it really guts you. And some of these people I knew. I mean, you see one side of people, you just have no idea and the gravity of it was just mind boggling.
JOSIE TAYLOR: Detective Sergeant Bill Patten has seen a lot in 28 years of police work. But nothing prepared him for what he was to encounter as an anti corruption investigator within Victoria Police.
BILL PATTEN: We just kept standing on landmines, everywhere we went it was just it was far worse than what the picture had been painted.
JOSIE TAYLOR: Described by his former Senior Sergeant as an "uncompromising perfectionist who never backs away from a challenge", Bill Patten was handpicked to join the top secret Ceja task force set up in 2002 after two drug squad members were found to be corrupt and the squad was disbanded. Bill Patten says the task force uncovered an extensive web of corruption.
BILL PATTEN: Police were trafficking drugs. They were offering protection to informers. They were involved with the distribution and manufacture of amphetamines. Obviously large quantities of cash, I'd say, were being kept by corrupt policemen.
JOSIE TAYLOR: Police command has always denied a link between police corruption and Melbourne's underworld murders. But Bill Patten is convinced corrupt police engaged in the drug trade fueled the gangland war.
BILL PATTEN: Corruption is - and it crosses over. So whether you say you're going to feed information to somebody else and someone gets murdered as a result of that information, or in the old term of burning an informer where you use an informer, you then feed him back to the criminal element and you let them know that he's been informing to the police - well, I'd suggest a number of those gangland murders were as a result of that. And I don't think there's any secrets in that
JOSIE TAYLOR: In the face of this, the Ceja task force achieved some impressive results. So far six former drug squad detectives have been convicted on various corruption offences, including dealing millions of dollars worth of heroin, protecting drug dealers and money laundering. The biggest scalp was the conviction of Detective Senior Sergeant Wayne Strachan last week on a charge of selling to Mark Moran, himself a victim of the bloody turf war. The convictions were seen as a cleanout of corrupt officers in the Victoria Police.
CHRISTINE NIXON: A terrific team of people who I think have done an outstanding job to bring these matters before the court and now most of those, in fact, are finished and we're able to see that these people have been convicted and out of Victoria Police.
JOSIE TAYLOR: But according to corruption investigators like Bill Patten, the task of cleaning up the force is nowhere near complete.
BILL PATTEN: A lot of that stuff, not for the wrong reasons but because of resourcing, has never been appropriately dealt with in the appropriate timeframes, because some of the stuff there's no good looking at it now. It's been and gone. You've missed the boat.
JOSIE TAYLOR: How frustrating is that for you?
BILL PATTEN: Again, you've got no idea. It just seems ludicrous. There was things there that were ready to go that were never looked at.
JOSIE TAYLOR: Chief Commissioner Christine Nixon declined a request from the 7.30 Report to respond to Detective Sergeant Bill Patten's claim that corrupt officers remain in the force.
BILL PATTEN: I'd put a figure between 12 and 24 that I could confidently say are either corrupt or contributed to corruption.
JOSIE TAYLOR: Still serving?
BILL PATTEN: Still serving.
JOSIE TAYLOR: So how far up the ranks does this go?
BILL PATTEN: Well, I think I'd go as far as superintendent.
JOSIE TAYLOR: Bill Patten is quick to point out corruption within the police force is limited to a small number of offenders. But he says force command has failed to tackle corruption at its highest levels.
BILL PATTEN: I have a very strong belief that commissioned officers have been protected. They've never been duly dealt with and I say that not for the wrong reasons. Some have sat on the fence - and it's been poor management practice. Some have been corrupt, some have sat on the fence and not blown the whistle.
JOSIE TAYLOR: He says part of the problem was access to Chief Commissioner Christine Nixon.
BILL PATTEN: Personally I thought it would have been important for her to sit much closer to it than what she did. But my own honest opinion is, because of the management process and the gravity of what might have come out of it, I believe that she distanced herself from what may have come out of it.
JOSIE TAYLOR: Despite calls for a royal commission, the job of pursuing police corruption in Victoria is still handled by internal investigators, and the State Government's Office of Police Integrity. Victorian Premier Steve Bracks remains unwilling to change his approach, despite Bill Patten's allegations.
STEVE BRACKS: Well, I reject that. I think corruption is being properly investigated and that's one of the reasons why we established the OPI, the Office of Police Integrity.
JOSIE TAYLOR: But so far Bill Patten has seen little evidence that this system is effective.
BILL PATTEN: My own honest opinion is there should have been a royal commission or a standing commission in relation to corruption in Victoria Police. Unquestionably, and with the benefit of hindsight, what I've endured and what other Victoria Police members have endured as investigators, and for the integrity of Victoria Police, I definitely believe there should have been something other than Ceja.
JOSIE TAYLOR: The traditional resentment towards police who are investigating police was made clear to the Ceja task force members.
BILL PATTEN: During the course of Ceja there was death threats made towards members. We had bullets left in one member's letterbox engraved with his name and his wife's name. We had a crook, the piranha, picked up that had basically a third of our fleet of vehicles with the registration numbers in his wallet. We had information from the underworld saying that someone was going to do a hit on one of the investigators to throw the whole thing into a spin.
JOSIE TAYLOR: The Ceja task force was shut down last year. Task force members were told they'd have help to reintegrate with the force, help Bill Patten claims was not forthcoming.
BILL PATTEN: We went into Ceja and did a tough job. We were made a number of promises by high level management, including Christine Nixon, and I'd say those promises have never been followed up with. We've never been duly supported and we've been forgotten about.
JOSIE TAYLOR: Late today, the Chief Commissioner issued a statement declaring that members of the task force had been provided with significant support, including welfare assistance. Despite that, Bill Patten's career is probably over. His appointment to a country police station is being challenged in the Supreme Court, a challenge funded by his own union, the Victorian Police Association.
BILL PATTEN: Well, here I am now. I'm about to leave Victoria Police after 28 years, a job that I loved and I lived for and, my wife will tell you, to the detriment of my family. We were handpicked to do a tough job and the fallout is, here I am suffering stress and anxiety.
JOSIE TAYLOR: Bill Patten is well aware going public with his story could endanger his life and his family.
BILL PATTEN: At the end of the day you're vulnerable, you're always vulnerable and what I've done and what I've said, people aren't going to be happy.
JOSIE TAYLOR: There is the added frustration that while Detective Sergeant Bill Patten might leave the force, corrupt officers will remain in it.
BILL PATTEN: How ironic is that? The people that investigate it have become casualties, while they continue. It just doesn't seem right. But I mean, you've got to get beyond that. That is the way it is and you've got to move on or else you get bitter and twisted about it. That's part of one of my strengths. No point getting bitter and twisted. What's happened, greater powers than me have decided how it was going to be dealt with and how it was going to finish, and that's where we're at now.
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