POLICE AND I.W.W.

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIV, Issue 10272, 6 May 1919, Page 3

POLICE AND I.W.W.

TROUBLE IN N.S.W THE ACTION BY THE STATE CABINET. I The State Cabinet (New South Wole?) recently decided upon certain steps to be taken with respect to the detectives whoso conduct was commented upon by Mr Justice Street in his report ns KoyuS Commissioner investigating the I.W.W. cases. The men affected, said Mr Holman, are Inspector Turbot, Sergeant Finding, Detective-Sergeants Miller and Hooper, and Detective-Constables Mitchell and Surridge.' The InspectorGeneral of Police recommended tnu-. the whole of these officers he censured for accepting concessions in regal'd to the price of suits from the Goldsteins through Pura, and that Inspector Turbot, in addition to this censure, be reprimanded for having recommended one of the Goldsteins us a fit poison to hold an hotelkeeper’s license. The Inspector-General further recommended that these officers be transferred irom headquarters to divisional stations. Cabinet has adopted the whole of these recommendations. By this transfer the men do not. suffer reductions in the rates of pay; but the nature of their work will bo altered and their future prospects of promotions will be prejudiced. Tile Inspector-General made these recommendations after the officers concerned had been given the opportunity of defending. themselves, and the recommendations were accepted by Cabinet aftor the fullest consideration and the closest possible inquiry into the facts.

In convoying the decision of Cabinet to tho public I wish to express the opinion of nil my colleagues that the finding of Mr Justice Street was one upon which tho police forco of the State is to be entirely congratulated. To quote tho precise words of tho Commissioner: ‘ ‘Tho charges of misconduct made against members of tho police forco in connection with the caso King v. Reeve and others have not been established as a fact, and nothing has been brought before me which raises any suspicion in my mind that misconduct in fact took place, though it could not bo proved.” It is a matter for profound regret to tho Inspector-General and ourselves that tho splendid record thus established, and which lias been proved after the closest investigation and the bitterest attacks, it should have been tarnished by the misconduct of certain officers whoso standing and experience should have guided them better. Ministers fully realise, that tho police, in conducting their difficult investigations amongst the criminal class, frequently have to maintain relations of comparative friendliness with some criminals in order to obtain important information which will enable them to safeguard the interests of the law-abiding section of the community.

Tile more fact that the police have to “fish in troubled waters,” to quote the language of the Royal Commissioner, would not, in itself, constitute misconduct; but it is, as every police officer is aware, a gross broach of discipline and of the regulations to accept gifts or concessions, or the equivalents of gifts or concessions, from 1 anyone without the knowledge or sanction of a superior authority, and a double offence where the person who makes the concession is one who is under suspicion of criminal misdoing. Tho Inspector-General, in making his recommendations, dwelt upon the long service and the previous honourable record of many of the officers concerned. Solely on that account, we have, as a Cabinet, resolved upon what ivc believe to bo a lenient course. H is thoroughly understood throughout the force that promotion and advancement can bo obtained only through the definite resistance to the temptations to accept concessions from tho enemies of society. There has recently been an effort to’improve tho general status of tho forces, and that will be followed in the future brothers, particularly affecting the Criminal Investigation Department. When the investigation was asked for, Ministers readily granted it m the’ fullest confidence that the particular kind of misconduct alleged by Messrs Brookfield and Mutch had never taken place. As a matter ot fact, that kind of misconduct had never taken place, and the judge has said so. So far as the charges made by Messrs Brookfield and Mutch are concerned, tho Police force has been magnificently exonerated. Unfortunately this most gratifying result has been tarnished by tho weakness, to say nothing worse, of certain officers from whom better things were expected. Inspector Turbet has been in uniform for a considerable time, and holds the rank of third-class inspector, the lowest grade of that rank. Sergeant Pauling also is in uniform, and was recently transferred from Paddington, in the Randwick division, to .Newtown. The other officers concerned will remain in the plain-clothes service, but will bo attached to divisional stations instead of headquarters.