Police Chronology 1994-2001
View events in the NSW Police Force since the Wood Royal Commission began in 1994.
| 1994 | |
| May | Justice James Wood is appointed Commissioner of the Royal Commission into the NSW Police Service ('WRC'). |
| 1996 | |
| June | Peter Ryan is appointed NSW Police Commissioner. |
| August | Peter Ryan is sworn in, promising to nail the bent coppers and get rid of the hierarchy. |
| Sep. 1 | Peter Ryan's first day on the job. |
| November | The Wood Royal Commission announces its Interim recommendations:
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| Ryan outlines his vision for the service. He comments that the service is driven by fear which causes officers to lie and cheat and perjure themselves rather than admit simple mistakes. He states that he wants more police on the streets as a lack of supervision was largely responsible for the corruption. | |
| 2,000 police march on Parliament House to protest against Ryan's new powers under the Police Reform Act which includes the authority to remove officers based on a "loss of the Commissioner's confidence". | |
| Dec. 16 | NSW Police Commissioner Peter Ryan backs down by agreeing not to use his new powers to sack corrupt officers retrospectively. |
| 1997 | |
| January | The Police Integrity Commission (PIC) opens for business. |
| March | Ryan axes the Special Branch. |
| WRC Public hearings end. | |
| April | Justice Wood resigns as Commissioner of the PIC. |
| May | NSW Police Commissioner Peter Ryan announces plans to sack 200 disgraced police. |
| Final report of the WRC released with 174 recommendations on how to end the culture of corruption. | |
| June 28 | Ron Levi is shot by officers Rodney Podesta and Anthony Dilorenzo on Bondi Beach. |
| December | Internal Affairs Operation Gymea, an investigation of the elite Task Force Bax which had been set up to clean up Kings Cross and the police service's image, culminates in the release of damning evidence at the PIC. |
| 1998 | |
| February | NSW Police Commissioner Peter Ryan says 109 officers had been dismissed after being identified as inept or corrupt by the WRC, the PIC or Internal Affairs. |
| Ryan sacks 19 officers, 18 of whom are alleged to have committed drug offences or stealing offences. | |
| March | The State Coroner concludes the inquest into Ron Levi's death and finds that the 2 officers have a case to answer. The Director of Public Prosecutions declines to proceed. |
| May | NSW Police Minister Paul Whelan says 99% of the 172 recommendations in the WRC final report have been implemented or are close to being implemented. |
| The NSW Ombudsman reveals that 380 officers have been targeted for dismissal for alleged corruption, misconduct and incompetence. | |
| June | NSW Police Commissioner Peter Ryan announces plans to introduce random drug testing for police officers. |
| August | NSW Police Commissioner Peter Ryan decides on a backlog of 300 cases of alleged misconduct. 12 officers (4%) are sacked, 75 officers (25%) resign or are declared medically unfit. |
| Sydney criminal Neddy Smith tells of his 'green light' while giving evidence at his murder trial. | |
| September | NSW Police Commissioner Peter Ryan receives from Internal Affairs (IA) a fresh list of 100 officers whose careers are in jeopardy following IA investigations into alleged serious breaches of conduct including corruption. |
| November | The NSW Ombudsman Annual Report details 5000 complaints against the police service and 110 criminal charges against police officers in the previous 12 months. |
| NSW Police Commissioner Peter Ryan admits there was "some truth" to reports that weapons handed in during the guns back-back scheme had been stolen by police officers and sold to gangs or turned in again for money. The investigation into the matter is called Task Force Majorca. | |
| December | The Police Integrity Commission Annual Report says the first half of the financial year saw a near doubling of complaints against police alleging attempts to pervert the course of justice. |
| 1999 | |
| January | NSW Police Commissioner Peter Ryan admits in an interview with Britain's Daily Mail that "we are not winning on the drugs front" and that drugs are the "root of most crime". |
| February | NSW Police Commissioner Peter Ryan signs a new contract making him Australia's highest paid public servant. |
| Feb-March | The Police Integrity Commission (PIC) holds hearings into the use and sale of illegal drugs by serving and former police. |
| March | The Police Service allows public access to their Special Branch dossiers. |
| April | Superintendent Ray Adams retires from Kings Cross command after spending two years trying to clean it up. Adams admits that although crime rates are down that the drug scourge "remains unanswered". |
| August | NSW Police Commissioner Peter Ryan sends a memo to every station in NSW advising that Cabramatta and other key commands have been downgraded. |
| 5000 officers participate in a survey to gauge the progress of anti-corruption reform. | |
| October | On the eve of the Police Integrity Commission (PIC) hearing into the Roni Levi shooting, Rodney Podesta admits in Sydney local Court to dealing in cocaine. |
| November | Police in inner and south-western suburbs begin a "go slow" over staffing shortfalls. |
| 2000 | |
| May | A Police Integrity Commission (PIC) audit finds that internal police investigations are "biased", pursued with less vigour than criminal investigations, and that more than a quarter of internal inquiries into complaints against police were "unsatisfactory": only 7% included checks on an officer's history of complaints; juniors investigated seniors and officers often investigated colleagues working in the same area. The PIC criticised decisions not to investigate 43.5% of complaints as "unreasonable" where the offences involved were stealing, corruption, drinking and drug use. |
| The Sydney Morning Herald reports that a quarter of NSW's police patrols are officially without leaders. The Police Service advertises for 18 local area commanders and 960 vacant sergeants positions. The Police Service says the vacancies are due to "retirements, promotions and other changed circumstances". | |
| An undercover Internal Affairs (IA)detective investigating crooked police in drug trafficking and gang warfare is arrested and charged with firearm and drugs offences. | |
| July | The Upper House Committee inquiry into police resources at Cabramatta is announced. |
| Police Minister Paul Whelan and the police service confirm that an investigation into serious misconduct at Goulburn Police Academy had been going on for "some time". | |
| August | The Police Integrity Commission (PIC) raises concerns in a report to Parliament that up to 50 officers are still moonlighting in risky areas such as the liquor, gaming and security industries. |
| Oct-Dec | The Police Integrity Commission (PIC) hears in camera evidence on claims that antagonistic senior officers are killing the reform process. |
| November | A draft of NSW Police Commissioner Peter Ryan's manifesto, Future Directions 2001-2005 is leaked to the Sydney Morning Herald and published on the Internet. |
| December | The Police Integrity Commission (PIC) expresses "concern and disappointment" at unsatisfactory police response to anti-corruption proposals. |
| NSW Police Commissioner Peter Ryan reshuffles 16 senior police. Assistant Commissioners Clive Small (Crime Agencies) and Mal Brammer (Internal Affairs & Special Crimes) are relieved of their posts and transferred to field commands. | |
| The Sydney Morning Herald reports that a leaked Internal Affairs report Operation Radium confirms officers have rorted the promotion system by circulating the lists of interview questions. | |
| 2001 | |
| February | QSARP, a wide-ranging audit of the NSW Police Service, is released. It is critical of the reform process saying that although "some real progress had been achieved" it was "systematically limited", fragmented, patchy, slow and in some areas had come to a halt. It disagrees with NSW Police Commissioner Peter Ryan's view that reform is near completion and criticises Ryan for a vision "which does not address the key themes developed in the recommendations of the Royal Commission". Ryan rejects the report saying it is 12 months old and narrow in focus. |
| March | The Cabramatta Inquiry censures Police Minister Paul Whelan for interfering and for calling for the Inquiry's termination. |
| Officers at Cabramatta vote unanimously to support Detective Sergeant Tim Priest's evidence on drug and gang activity but stop short on his claims about management ignoring reports on gang crime. | |
| Christine Nixon is appointed Commissioner of Victorian Police. | |
| One of the officers at the scene of the fatal shooting of Jim Hallinan from Tumut faces dismissal after testing positive to cannabis after the shooting. | |
| The drugs case against Richard Gordon Tyler is adjourned after the court is told that an officer in the Internal Affairs unit may have lied to judges while applying for listening devices for a sting operation. | |
| March | NSW Premier Bob Carr announces a reversal of the 1999 Cabramatta downgrade. |
| May | Police Minister Paul Whelan says police fabricated evidence to obtain convictions in "countless cases" and announces plans to establish an innocence panel in January 2002 to review suspect convictions. |
| June | The Police Integrity Commission recommends tough random drug testing be introduced immediately in a scathing report on the shooting of Ron Levi. It finds "compelling reasons" to broaden action over officers using drugs. |
| July | Two senior commanders and five officers from Internal Affairs are stood down while being investigated on charges of perverting the course of justice. It is alleged that the officers lied to the Supreme Court to get search warrants and permission to install listening devices to be used in an ultimately botched sting operation/integrity test to trap young officers. |
| NSW Premier Bob Carr rebukes police leadership saying they had taken their eye off the ball in dealing with drug-related violent crime in Cabramatta. | |
| The report of the Upper House Inquiry is released. It finds deficiencies in policing in Cabramatta are a direct result of the police service's failure to communicate with locals and the senior officers' failure to listen to front-line officers. It finds buck passing, mismanagement and low morale in front line officers and that drug related crimes ran out of control while the service instructed officers to focus on keeping crime statistics and normal suburban crime. | |
| August | Tapes played at the Police Integrity Commission show Inspector Robert Menzies received confidential information about prospective questions from Senior Constable Graham Kel after the latter's interview for sergeant and before Menzies' interview for duty officer. |
| September | The Carr Government ramps up sentences for gang-related crime. 16 new offences or tougher sentences are introduced in three weeks. |
| The Carr Government announces that it will make false complaints against a police officer a crimehttp://www.abc.net.au/4corners/stories/s614583.htm |
