Deputy Police Commissioner Cath Burn wants to be NSW’s next top cop: ‘I have the qualifications and the credentials’
Deputy Police Commissioner Catherine Burn has confirmed she is applying to be the state’s next top cop — declaring she had been “vindicated” of “all serious allegations over the police bugging scandal.
NSW
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DEPUTY Police Commissioner Catherine Burn has confirmed she is applying to be the state’s next top cop — declaring she had been “vindicated” of “all those serious allegations that I’ve had to endure” over the police bugging scandal.
Ms Burn also defended her operational experience in reaction to a campaign by some to question whether she was experienced enough to be commissioner — opening up about her 33 years working across every area of the police force.
“I feel I have an obligation and a duty of care to the police force and the community of NSW to apply for the position of Commissioner,” Ms Burn told The Daily Telegraph.
Ms Burn said she should not be punished for “mistakes” made 18 years ago during an internal affairs operation — which was the subject of the NSW Ombudsman’s controversial Operation Prospect report. Ms Burn’s announcement comes after popular former deputy commissioner and rival Nick Kaldas also recently told The Daily Telegraph he was “considering applying” too.
Mr Kaldas’ had adverse findings made against him in the Ombudsman’s report too — over alleged accessing of material and alleged false evidence. Ms Burn was found to have engaged in “unlawful conduct” by the Ombudsman when she was supervising the management of an informant who breached bail conditions. She was also found to have engaged in “unreasonable conduct” by pursuing an investigation despite allegations being inaccurate or misrepresented.
Ms Burn yesterday admitted “mistakes” in the investigations examined by the Ombudsman that occurred 18 years ago but she said she did not believe these should preclude her from a shot at replacing outgoing Commissioner Andrew Scipione.
The Deputy Commissioner has produced legal advice by prominent barrister Bruce McClintock, SC, finding the “unlawful conduct” finding against her cannot be sustained. “I acknowledge that mistakes were made but ... the Ombudsman exonerated me in terms of any illegal behaviour ... any illegal bugging which has been an allegation that has been made against me for some time,” Ms Burn said.
“I believe I have the qualifications and the credentials and that is why I’m going to put my name forward.
“One of the things that I’m very, very proud of with my service is I’ve worked in nearly every operational area in the NSW police force.
“That might be general duties, local detectives, Kings Cross and drug work, in the homicide squad, state major incident group, (on) many murders, organised crime, and I’ve worked clearly on corruption matters as well.
“So, in fact, the vast majority of my career I’ve been operational, doing high pressure jobs like homicide and I’ve also then been a local area commander, at Burwood and at Redfern, and that is nearly as operational as you can get.
“I was also the commander of Sydney region, Sydney Metropolitan region for a couple of years; police commander of all the major operations, World Youth Day, New Year’s Eve, so I’ve got a wealth of operational experience and I’ve also had the good fortune to be exposed to the corporate side of the business.” Ms Burn also pointed to her work on counter-terrorism since 2012 as a reason she was a strong candidate.
“In NSW, I believe that we are doing a really, really good job — it’s difficult work and we’ve seen some very tragic incidents here,” she said.
“We’ve seen Lindt, we’ve seen Curtis Cheng and we’ve seen the attack at Minto but we’ve also seen an amazingly good police response ... preventing attacks.”
Ms Burn declined to comment on any prospect of her role in the Lindt siege being criticised ahead of the outcome of coronial findings.
Ms Burn started her career as a constable at the scene of the infamous shooting of policeman Mick Drury in 1984. She spent some time in his house protecting his family afterwards. Eventually she settled in internal affairs — where the “illegal” police bugging allegations arose.
“Yes there were some mistakes but I reject that I have done anything that is unethical or unlawful and, in fact, the Ombudsman does not find that I have,” Ms Burn said. “This happened nearly 18 years ago when I was a substantive sergeant, albeit an acting Inspector at the time. There was a pecking order, a chain of command, and I was in the middle.
“I’m not shying away, there were definitely mistakes made but a lot of what occurred was because of the systems and practices in place at the Crime Commission at that time. Crucially, the Ombudsman report found that I never acted illegally, I never acted unethically, I never did anything that was deliberate or intentionally wrong and I never had malice against anyone.
“I have been exonerated from those serious allegations that have been made about me over many years.
“It is a bad precedent to hold police to such a level of scrutiny where mistakes made 18 years earlier will hamper their careers 18 years later, notwithstanding that they may have been promoted over the years. If police officers fear taking action without perfect certainty lest their careers be damaged we will inevitably embed a slow-moving, cumbersome and ineffective police culture and ultimately see the re-emergence of systemic corruption.”
It is understood the government may promote an assistant commissioner to the top job, like Mick Fuller, partly as an attempt to get away from the Kaldas/Burn affair.
UNLAWFUL DECISION DOESN’T STACK UP
EXCLUSIVE Andrew Clennell
CATHERINE Burn has produced advice from top barrister Bruce McClintock, who completed the government’s review of ICAC, that says it was wrong for the NSW Ombudsman to find she had engaged in “unlawful conduct” regarding the supervision of an informant.
A report into police bugging by the NSW Ombudsman found Ms Burn’s management of informant “Paddle” in 1999 was unlawful because he breached his bail conditions.
The Ombudsman found Burn was the team leader with “supervisory responsibilities”. “Paddle” was facing criminal charges and was subject to the bail condition “not to communicate ... with any person of whom he has received notice is to be called or is likely to be called by the Crown at his trial”.
In his advice, Mr McClintock says: “(Paddle) was fitted with listening device and recorded conversations with persons who were likely to be witnesses ... The officer with principal responsibility for handling Paddle’s deployment was Detective Sergeant Boyd-Skinner who reported, in turn, to Ms Burn.
“It was accepted by the Ombudsman that neither Boyd-Skinner nor Ms Burn were aware of the bail condition and consequently accepted that they were unaware that it was being breached.”
The barrister says Acting Ombudsman John McMillan was wrong to find Ms Burn acted unlawfully over the matter as the concept was not defined in the Police Act.
He also says the officers could not have acted “unlawfully” given they were unaware “Paddle” was breaching a bail condition.
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