Important Note: Most police officers honour their sworn oath to protect the community. However some betray their oath and predate the communities they are sworn to serve!

In 2018, Tasmania Police leadership gave a full honour guard funeral to an officer they knew to be a serial paedophile. This officer was later found to have targeted 52 boys over his 38-year career. The Coroner inquiring into this officer’s suicide noted that this man was well-known to be a paedophile in the regional communities where he was stationed. The Weiss Inquiry, established by the Police Commissioner found no-one in Tasmania Police accountable for failing to stop this serial sex offender.

At the Commission of Inquiry Tasmania Police revealed that they had received CSA allegations against 22 officers since 2000 with only a handful considered proven. Only this month, another Police Officer was charged with accessing child exploitation material due to AFP surveillance. He ran the Police Community Youth Club in Launceston in about 2005.

Rumours persist in the Victim-Survivor community of the whereabouts of a Police Officer known colloquially as ‘Dirty Harry” who has achieved mythic status as a violent sex predator monstering rural communities with his associates. Tasmania Police have no records!

Post-COI it is astonishing that Tasmania Police has done so little to engage directly with communities to restore the lost trust and re-build confidence. Yes, some positive steps have been taken in terms of supporting victims, but the rural communities I am dealing with, remain extremely fearful of reporting CSA, especially when the allegations are against Police Officers like the infamous ‘Dirty Harry’. Potential informants report that “Country Justice” remains in force in the smaller towns with vigilantism and reports of police reprisals ongoing.

If Tasmania Police really wants to restore community confidence the following actions are in order:

• Senior officers should convene community forums across the State
• Community Engagement Officers should periodically visit rural towns to meet with community leaders to improve rapport
• The barriers to reporting CSA, especially against Police Officers, need to be systematically removed

While engaging with many Police Officers over recent years I constantly heard that they are insufficiently resourced to handle an ever-growing number of CSA reports and that their internal systems are deficient to track allegations over time. There is a structural over-reliance on the Australian Federal Police who while very effective at cyber-surveillance have no role in investigating the local organised networks that the Tasmanian COI observed.  Another obstacle is Tasmania Police’s ongoing inability to access CSA records held in other Government Agencies. 

As such, for Tasmania Police to meet the challenge of widespread and longstanding CSA it must:

• Staff the relevant Commands to meet the volume of reports
• Build-up local specialist expertise (not rely on the AFP)
• Implement the data management capability to track and map CSA reports over time and across regions
• Fast-track the cross-Agency data sharing arrangements (2030 is the current timeline for the DoJ to approve data sharing)

Key takeaways?

1. Tasmania Police is the senior agency when it comes to CSA, and other agencies expect leadership.
2. Successful prosecutions is the measure of success for Police. However, with CSA, the Police must acknowledge that different metrics are needed. Investigations suppress offending even if they don’t deliver a successful prosecution.
3. CSA is a social driver for the criminalisation of youth. To reduce crime Police and the Government need to reduce the extremely high incidence of CSA in Tasmania.
4. With international evidence showing that up to 4% of men have CSA proclivities, the simple maths tells us that Tasmania Police like any other male dominated workforce, will likely have a significant number of Paedophiles! Sensible and active vigilance is necessary.
5. Training alone is ineffective in changing culture.  A cultural change strategy is needed focussing more on actual behaviour and accountability!

Conversation starters?

1. What hope do we have as a society if we can’t protect our children?
2. Why are people fearful about reporting child sexual abuse to Police?
3. Would you feel comfortable reporting a Police Officer known to be abusing children?

Important Note– The vast majority of Tasmanian police are well deserving of our respect and co-operation. Many felt conflicted and disappointed to learn that the officer to which they gave an honour-gaurd was in fact a criminal actively abusing boys throughout his 38-year career!