Racism claims put spotlight on OPI-police ties

A LEGAL framework to prevent cosy relationships and career swaps between top members of Victoria's OPI and Victoria Police, is urgently needed.

A LEGAL framework to prevent cosy relationships and career swaps between top members of Victoria's Office of Police Integrity and the organisation it is responsible for investigating, Victoria Police, is urgently needed, according to the author of a report on police racism.

Tamar Hopkins told The Australian yesterday that career moves such as that of the OPI's former deputy director, Graham Ashton, to a top role at Victoria Police, created an unhealthy public perception of "agency capture" for a watchdog body in desperate need of public confidence in its independence.

While Victoria Police lauded Mr Ashton as a man of the highest integrity with an unblemished track record in the Australian Federal Police, the OPI and now Victoria Police, where he is the director of corporate strategy and governance, Ms Hopkins called on the OPI to rethink its "revolving door" policy for key personnel.

The concerns of Ms Hopkins were supported by Queensland barrister Mark Le Grand, the former director of the official misconduct division of that state's Criminal Justice Commission and a former director of the investigation of organised crime for the National Crime Authority.

Mr Le Grand said it was completely inappropriate for the senior ranks of the OPI to be eligible for senior roles with Victoria Police because of the perception, if not the reality "that you are going to be less likely to embarrass a prospective employer, and less likely to make the hard calls".

"To be an integral part of the watchdog establishment and to then leave it to join the police you were watching makes for a terrible perception," Mr Le Grand said.

"At the very minimum, there should be a protocol where you say, `No, once you have jumped the fence at a certain level, that's it - there's no going back' because of the risk that you're not going to make the hard calls when your career depends on it.

"The problem with bureaucratic organisations like the OPI is they have to work within a system dictated by the body they are meant to investigate, and you can see how cosy it is with people coming and going between the OPI and Victoria Police.

"But the Victorian government cannot bring itself to set up a truly independent body that would break the current impasse.

"While they continue to have organisations with window-dressing to make them look like the real thing, they will only be fiddling around the edges."

Ms Hopkins, who wrote the report, An Effective System for Investigating Complaints Against Police, for the Victoria Law Foundation, said the revolving door between OPI and Victoria Police reduced independence.

"Somebody needs to examine this," Ms Hopkins said. "The only body who could deal with this is the Ombudsman but there's a problem there, because the Ombudsman used to be the head of the OPI."

Mr Ashton, who went to Victoria Police late last year, declined to comment. However, a Victoria Police spokeswoman rejected criticisms of the process that led to his appointment by Chief Commissioner Simon Overland.

"The key point is that Graham Ashton has the highest ethics and the highest integrity," she said.

Mr Ashton left the OPI five months ago, before its long-running case against former Victoria Police assistant commissioner Noel Ashby collapsed.

The OPI came under fire again this week with Ms Hopkins's allegations it had failed to respond properly to about 20 complaints of racism against Victoria Police.