Rita Panahi: Victorians for good reason have no trust in Victoria Police

Victoria Police’s hierarchy, which includes Dan Andrews’ former chief of staff, is doing a fine job of alienating pro-law enforcement Victorians.

Victoria Police’s standing in the community will not improve while command continue to make decisions that reinforce fears that the force has become hopelessly politicised.

In the past week we’ve seen Victoria Police make two significant blunders by devoting resources to hunt down the I Cook Foods whistleblower and failing to reinvestigate the Red Shirts rorts.

The former involved a high level conspiracy involving government workers that saw a successful business destroyed and the latter involved Labor systematically stealing around $400,000 of taxpayers’ money and then spending a further million-plus in legal fees trying to prevent the Ombudsman from probing the thievery.

In both cases there was interference from senior officers who kiboshed the cases being pursued further.

I Cook founder, Ian Cook, is aghast that police are investigating the leak rather than the conspiracy to destroy his business. “It’s staggering that the only matter Victoria Police is investigating is the release of an official police report that shows they haven’t done their job, and that charges should have been laid years ago,” Mr Cook said. “This is a clear case of Victoria Police shooting the messenger.”

The Boss of iCook, Ian Cook, said he was disgusted a police investigation was being held into the source of a document. Picture: Alex Coppel.

And, it was revealed late last year that fraud squad detectives wanted to charge up to 16 government MPs over the Red Shirts saga but they were blocked by senior officers. Rather than reopening the case Victoria Police has opted to effectively reward the Labor MPs who have steadfastly refused to co-operate with police despite the premier’s assurances that they would.

This week’s decisions will ensure the force is viewed with suspicion by an increasing number of Victorians. The VicPol hierarchy, which now includes an assistant commissioner that served as Daniel Andrews’ chief of staff, is doing a fine job of alienating pro-law enforcement Victorians.

There is a crisis in trust in Victoria Police and with good reason after two years of police compromising their independence and enforcing insane rules from playground bans to fining, arresting and beating peaceful protesters. This follows reputational damage from the Lawyer X scandal and high profile cases of selective policing.

The crisis in trust will not be helped with rumours circulating among senior officers that Premier Andrews’ former chief of staff, Brett Curran, is being groomed to take over from Chief Commissioner Shane Patton.