Baptism of firepower

WHEN Simon Overland quit the Australian Federal Police after 19 years to take up his role as assistant commissioner in Victoria Police in early 2003, he left an administrative desk job and walked into the middle of Melbourne's gangland wars. "What we're dealing with here is a desperately serious situation," he told reporters the day after Lewis Moran became the 23rd victim of the city's underworld wars in 2004.

WHEN Simon Overland quit the Australian Federal Police after 19 years to take up his role as assistant commissioner in Victoria Police in early 2003, he left an administrative desk job and walked into the middle of Melbourne's gangland wars. "What we're dealing with here is a desperately serious situation," he told reporters the day after Lewis Moran became the 23rd victim of the city's underworld wars in 2004.

"There is a degree of the surreal about this. From my own point of view, it's the first time I've genuinely been shocked by what has occurred. These people are people with families, and they have lives."

Overland, 46, was picked by Christine Nixon in 2003 to head the crime department of the force after a stellar career at the AFP and a first-class honours law degree.

He was named AFP recruit of the year in 1984 and was part of a politically sensitive taskforce that investigated the murder of AFP assistant commissioner Colin Winchester in 1989.

In 2002, Overland was seconded from the AFP to help oversee the creation of the Australian Crime Commission after the National Crime Authority was disbanded.

In the months after Nixon's announcement that Overland would be coming to Victoria as the assistant commissioner of crime, her choice was criticised for his lack of street experience. But Overland learned fast. Faced with a city reeling from underworld killings and possible police corruption, he was made the head of taskforce Purana and police slowly started winning the battle.

When notorious gangland killer Carl Williams pleaded guilty to three murders and was sentenced in 2007, Overland, who had by then been promoted to deputy commissioner, hailed it as a victory for his Purana detectives.

On the back of the success of his Purana taskforce, Overland's name as come up as potential replacement for the commissioner's job in NSW and for AFP chief if Mick Keelty decides to leave before his contract expires.

The Victorian Government's efforts to keep him came out during last year's explosive Office of Police Integrity hearings. Taped conversations alleged Overland had been offered but declined an expensive study trip to France which his jealous rival, then police deputy commissioner Noel Ashby, tried to use against him. Ashby's antics, along with those of then Police Association secretary Paul Mullett, dramatically backfired and the pair face charges including perjury and perverting the course of justice. Overland came out of the hearings relatively unscathed and seems to be the heir apparent to Nixon.

Victorian Police Association assistant secretary Bruce McKenzie admits Overland would fit the union's criteria for the top job. "We strongly support the appointment of a Victorian police officer to be the next police commissioner. We believe if the Government got an interstate candidate, it would be a significant slap in the face to Victorian officers," he says.