The wonderful Federal Police
I well remember years ago reading a federal police training manual which someone accidentally dropped at my front door. It spelled out some sobering statistics about successful convictions obtained by the feds. It showed that federal policing is not about competent investigation, but about the ability to exercise authority. The stats showed that about 15% of crimes investigated by the Federal Police led to prosecution and about a quarter of these led to a conviction. That's around 3.5%.
This was no surprise for a cynic like me who long considered many "investigators" working for the Federal Police are incompetent and out of their depth. I am reminded of this because of the disgraceful abuse of power by our corrupt government which did its utmost via its enforcers, the feds, to charge Dr Mohamed Haneef and cancel his visa.
A bit strong? Not really.
The training manual I mentioned also spelled out another statistical point - that of the successful convictions obtained by the feds, about 90% were based on confessions. I don't remember the numbers, but I do remember it was above 90%. Think about it.
I can surmise, probably quite fairly, that the confessions were extracted thanks to the authority exerted by the coppers on the suspects. "Beat it out of him" and "verballing" comes to mind. Private investigators have a good idea what proportion of investigations lead to confessions.
These days thanks to the availability of extensive media and information access through technology, such violent methods are far less common. At least in Australia. The feds are rightly coming under widespread attack including from Dr Faris, former head of the NCA who said the evidence mistake in the Haneef case was a "shocking mess-up". The Brits are laughing at them, but of course the government is sticking to its attack line until it can think of a better way to save face.
Nowadays the Federal Police or any police service compliant to the executive's wicked aims have of course the benefit of our anti-terrorism laws. A great tool for the executive to stick it up the judiciary in order to attain its objective. An individual doesn't matter. What's important is the political objective of the government. So if we got to put Haneef away for 20 years for "recklessly associating with terrorists", then that's a small price to pay to make ourselves look like honourable, concerned, security-minded government protecting its people. And win votes.
Quiz: can you think of a public servant, police, lawyer, people like you and me, who have been squashed into oblivion because they did not toe the government line. Or worse, who dared try to expose the corruption?
Strong views? Let me tell you more. My own investigation agency, just a little insignificant show, in its time had more than a handful former police, federal and state, working for it. I even had a serving police prosecutor apply for a job (not the brightest bloke in town) and I also worked with a retired police senior inspector who was an investigation trainer at the NSW Police Academy. I had to explain to this chap and keep explaining about proper statement form (terminology), proper spelling and proper English. True! He struggled to grasp the core issues of the cases under investigation and too often completely missed the obvious during his investigations. True! Out of my own warped sense of respect for a "senior inspector of police" I persisted with him for a couple of months.
This does not say I was a super-pro as an investigator, but what it does say is that many Federal Police are incompetent investigators way out of their depth when faced with complex cases. And the existence and availability of this pool of dummies to be used when the government "winks" at the Federal Police Commissioner, is testimony to the benefit of almighty authority, that wonderful title "Federal Police" which can be so conveniently stuck at the top of any report. Many people are too easily convinced because "well, the Federal Police have investigated" that it must mean they are right and have done a thoroughly professional and independent job of it. And they are not subject to influence from above. People do not sufficiently question the competence and motives of police.
Personally, when I read in the papers "Federal police commissioner Mick Keelty has assured…" I cringe and wonder what poor sucker has had his life destroyed. Don't buy the bullshit.
Sadly and unfairly, the skilled, intelligent and committed police investigators end up demoralised with a career cut short because they've got to bite their tongue. Or they leave the service altogether.
Michael Hessenthaler