Cop this Jacinta; you’re entering very dangerous territory

Premier Jacinta Allan and Chief Commissioner Shane Patton. Picture: David Caird

Given she witnessed what happens to Victorian premiers who mishandle the politics of police, it’s astonishing Jacinta Allan now finds herself in a cop-storm of her own making.

As a middle-ranking minister in 2009-10, Allan had a front-row seat as premier John Brumby’s hand-picked chief commissioner Simon Overland was engulfed in toxic feuds ripping apart police command.

Brumby and his police minister, Bob Cameron, were so confident Overland was made of the right stuff they took the extraordinary step of personally fitting his chief commissioner epaulets at a press conference to announce his appointment.

That Overland allowed his office to be used by two politicians on day one was perhaps the perfect demonstration of why he wasn’t the right bloke for the job.

Brumby’s final 18 months in office were spent grappling with a dysfunctional police command that distracted the government’s law and order message. And then along came Ted Baillieu.

After his surprise victory in November 2010, the Liberal premier inherited the police command crisis but somehow managed to make it worse.

By June 2011, Overland had quit. Less than two years later, Baillieu also quit as the legacy of the police crisis caught him amid the leaking of secret tapes, some of which involved his government’s political advisers.

History shows Jacinta Allan is walking through dangerous political territory by turning on police command in a brazen attempt to save Labor from its own mistakes. With the impact of Labor’s decision to weaken bail laws 18 months ago coming home to roost in the form of a youth crime plague – blamed in part for the by-election belting in Werribee – Allan ousted chief commissioner Shane Patton and deputy commissioner Neil Paterson.

It didn’t matter that her government had ignored police warnings about what would happen if it was easier for teen crims to get bail. Or that, more recently, Labor ignored Patton’s recommended fix. She needed a couple of scapegoats, and these two cops would do.

But like Brumby and Baillieu before her, it seems Allan has miscalculated. While Patton has, at least publicly, stayed silent, Paterson has made it clear he’s not going to go quietly into the night and has lodged a complaint with Victoria’s anti-corruption agency, IBAC.

Paterson has alleged that he and Patton were the victims of an “unlawful” conspiracy and “corruption and misconduct in public office” because the Premier and others “conspired” to get rid of them after being given “frank and fearless” advice. His complaint claims the government was organising Patton’s replacement well before the police union vote of no confidence Allan used to removing them.

Allan strongly denied this claim – but it’s not her call to dismiss the complaint.

In coming weeks, hopefully sooner, IBAC’s assessment team will consider Paterson’s complaint. Should the commissioner, deputy commissioner and other corruption busters who make up the team upgrade the complaint to the next step – what’s referred to as a preliminary investigation – Allan has a big problem.