Editorial: The sinister veil of secrecy over SA Police must lift

The legal process invoked to gag the Sunday Mail this week is deeply wrong.

Everyone learns from mistakes, as Police Commissioner Grant Stevens rightly asserts.

More than three decades ago, the then-Elizabeth CIB investigator’s gun accidentally discharged during a heroin raid and, after an inquiry, he was ordered to submit to “managerial guidance”.

Mr Stevens says he has never hidden from that incident – indeed, he says he has used it as a teachable moment when speaking to officers so they “understand accidents do happen” and that, when they do, “the best thing to do is to own up” and “let the process unfold”.

That process included gagging the Sunday Mail this week, which splashed with Shot in the Dark about the incident, but legally the Commissioner couldn’t be identified. This is completely inappropriate.

SA Police Commissioner Grant Stevens. Picture: Darren Chaitman

It was only that he outed himself that it is now public.

The Commissioner is a rightly respected figure who is loved by many South Australians for his guidance during Covid.

There is no suggestion a mistake decades ago should cost him now, however it is of public interest and the police invoking laws to keep it secret on Sunday was deeply wrong.

Those same laws are being used to hide more serious incidents and it is that process, rather than Mr Stevens’ personal experience, that should be not only placed under the spotlight but subjected to immediate reform.

Unlike police in any other state, SA officers accused of misconduct or any form of disciplinary breach enjoy blanket suppression orders during tribunal hearings.

Though conducted in a court building, and by a judge or magistrate, these hearings take place in another world – and if the secrecy around them is breached there are $30,000 fines for individuals and $150,000 for companies.

Concern over this unique and draconian level of secrecy is well known.

The SA Civil and Administrative Tribunal criticised it in 2022, as did a 15-month review by the Crime and Public Integrity Policy Committee.

But while MPs floated the idea of change in 2023, it seems the political appetite to open the blinds has faded in the two years since.

Other states got to their more open police forces through royal commissions.

There are at least 17 rogue officers in SA each year and millions paid out in compensation.

A transparent police force is a better force and it is well past time for action in SA.