Inquiry Agent Warns On Police Control
Sydney Morning Herald
Monday April 20, 1998
The State Government is considering legislation which will bring private inquiry agents (PIs) under the control of the Police Commissioner and create "a closed shop" in criminal investigation, a leading private inquiry agents' association has claimed.
Mr John Bracey, founder of the Australian Institute of Private Detectives, believes the move is being made in a clandestine fashion, with an act to be passed as a fait accompli later this year, giving the commissioner power to grant and revoke all PI licences.
He believes the act, by creating a close link between former police who became PIs and serving police, would create large-scale corruption, and also close off the one chance accused people have of independent investigation.
"The act will just open the floodgates," Mr Bracey said. "The police department is already talking about the possibility of outsourcing some work to PIs.
"A policeman retires and he gets snapped up by a PI agency and they make him investigations manager. He gets rid of all the good investigators and puts in all his mates. Between 60 and 70 per cent of our industry are ex-cops.
"If they have outsourcing, it is going to make the link with the police service even tighter. Together with the Police Commissioner's licensing control, it is going to create a closed shop. You might see that in the present Police Integrity Commission inquiry into police/security industry links and the Olympics."
Mr Bracey believes people employing a private investigator would never be sure that the police would not use extended powers to search the files of PIs.
A Security Industry Act, introducing stringent controls on that industry, was passed by Parliament late last year. It comes into force on July 1 and is a model for the proposed PI legislation. Mr Bracey does not believe MPs will read the small print.
Mr Bracey, after receiving adverse mention by Mr Adrian Roden, QC, in his ICAC inquiry into Unauthorised Release of Confidential Government Information, formed his institute in 1992 and claims to have more than 380 members. In 1993 he drew up a proposed bill for the industry to regulate itself.
He said yesterday that designated PI agents should be allowed access to certain government information, with strict controls and sanctions.
But he believed licensing and control should be in the hands of a board, comprising representatives of the Attorney-General's Department, the Law Society and the Insurance Council.
Mr Bracey's views are not shared by Mr Warren Mallard, NSW president of the Institute of Mercantile Agents, which covers PI agents and, he claims, has up to 700 members nationally, including 200 in NSW.
Mr Mallard, a former policeman, sees nothing wrong with the Police Commissioner or his representative having licensing control over the PI industry. He does not believe that the police and the industry should be at loggerheads.
"We are hoping that with levels of competence will come levels of credibility and levels of acceptance by the Government and public," he said. "You would need competency levels and more stringent legislation to prevent just about anybody coming into the industry. We hope we will be given access to confidential information on a needs basis."
A spokesperson for the Police Minister, Mr Whelan, confirmed that the PI Bill would be introduced, but though there had been extensive consultation with the industry, it would ultimately be "the Government's bill".
© 1998 Sydney Morning Herald
Share This