Victoria’s police watchdog has found that officers continue to engage in predatory behaviour towards vulnerable members of the public, despite internal efforts to detect and subdue it, and that the conduct remains under-reported.
In a review undertaken by the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission and released on Tuesday, analysis of 27 police investigations done between 2018 and 2022 into predatory behaviour by officers revealed that women experiencing domestic or family violence were often targets.
Earlier this year, Chief Commissioner Shane Patton told officers in an all-staff message that nobody in the force was above the law, and misconduct of any kind – including sexual harassment and predatory behaviour – would not be tolerated. IBAC found that this unit, now known as the Legal Discipline Advisory Unit, “provided problematic advice to investigators, including recommending sanctions that were not consistent with investigation findings, Victoria Police standards or community expectations”.
“Due to the inherent conflict of interest in reporting to the same institution who employs the perpetrator, and the risks for victims in doing so, many women experiencing violence by police do not report this,” she said. “Members of the public who report a crime need to be safe from police officers assessing and grooming them for sexual relationships,” said Gregor Husper, principal lawyer at the Police Accountability Project.
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