NT Police to review disciplinary procedure for badly behaved cops

‘The process is the punishment’: Police review how officers are treated by their internal disciplinary procedure. See what cops want changed.

The bureaucracy is worse than the crime according to cops, as the government announces a review into police discipline.

It comes as four officers were charged in 48 hours on Thursday, including serious allegations against top cop Acting Senior Sergeant Neil Mellon.

Police Minister Kate Worden confirmed on Friday that a review into police disciplinary processes was underway.

It followed the Northern Territory Police Association (NTPA) annual conference last Friday, which addressed a damning survey from rank and file members.

The NTPA survey found the majority of officers were unhappy with leadership, understaffed, underpaid and losing faith in the force.

NTPA President Paul McCue said police discipline was one of the top six complaints from rank and file police.

Disciplinary issues can be initiated from public complaints or internal investigations and range from minor misconduct to serious allegations.

“Our members for several years now have been subjected to long protracted and heavy handed approaches in relation to discipline,” Mr McCue said.

“Sadly, the harm the discipline process causes often outweighs the alleged breach.

“In other words, the process is the punishment.

“What we need to see is an educational and a managerial approach.”

Mr McCue said the Professional Standards Command left officers in limbo while waiting for the findings.

He said there were “unacceptable delays” in appeal decisions, while wait times for the disciplinary processes varied from case to case.

“There’s so many performance and educational matters being put to serious breaches of discipline.

“The system is failing those it is designed to help and protect.”

However, Mr McCue said he was aware of one dismissed officer who had waited two years for an outcome on their appeal.

“How does a member wait two years for a decision appeal to be received and still continue to wait today,” he said.

“That is unacceptable.

“Something is broken for that process and you break a member while you’re doing it.

Mr McCue said he was “cautiously” supportive of review into the Professional Standards Command, which was “still in its early days”.

“For too long we’ve been waiting for real change in approaches to discipline — less punitive, more educational,” he said.

“We’ve already provided feedback to the team undertaking that review, and we’ll continue to work with the Commissioner.”

Following the NTPA annual meeting, Ms Worden said the government had committed to reviewing the disciplinary process.

When pressed for details about the review, Ms Worden said: “I don’t want to comment on operational matters. That work is well underway.”

She said the review began “as soon as I became Minister”.

Ms Worden made no public announcement of the review back in May.

The latest NTPFES annual report found that of the 886 complaints and internal investigations made against police, 130 or 15 per cent were serious enough to require disciplinary action.

The Productivity Commission said the Territory had the second highest rate of complaints against officers, behind only South Australian Police.

In 2020-21 NT Police broke a 10-year record in the rate of reports from the public, with 39 complaints for every 100 operational staff.

The National Survey of Community Satisfaction with Policing also found Territorians had the lowest satisfaction rate with police, with 71.8 per cent saying they were “totally satisfied” with the NT Police.

Every other policing jurisdiction in Australia had satisfaction rates higher than 79 per cent.