Upon news of the arrest of then-NSW Crime Commission assistant director Mark Standen in 2008, Bernard Keane wrote:
“There’s undoubtedly a Chinatown effect at play here. It may be impossible in this murky interface of police, investigators and organised crime, and various combinations thereof, to ever work out what is true in these allegations. However, it is clear that the secrecy and lack of accountability of the NSW Crime Commission only adds to the confusion. And as the case of Standen suggests, it may yet serve to inflict massive damage on the Commission itself.
To date the NSW Crime Commission has proved to be Australia’s most secretive and unaccountable agency. It boasts Royal Commission-like powers to investigate crime and assemble evidence through a group of public servants exercising remarkable, wide-ranging powers.
Angela Priestley, editor of The Power Index (launching Monday), shows today how the Commission has effectively sold itself to NSW governments as a corruption-free crime-fighting entity that can be relied on to generate serious revenue through asset seizure — and needs no oversight beyond the minimal scrutiny to which it is currently subject. The Commission has even attempted to prevent judicial investigation by claiming it is literally incapable of wrongdoing.
The case of Standen, who yesterday was convicted of conspiring to import drugs, demonstrates the need for far greater focus on its draconian powers and limited accountability. For too long criticism of the Commission has been confined to civil libertarians, the media it has frequently targeted, and the victims of its far-reaching powers. Standen’s conviction demonstrates the result of extraordinary power without accountability. It is time for the Commission to be brought to heel by the NSW Parliament.
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How many times is it necessary to refer to Lord Acton’s dictum “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power tends to corrupt absolutely”? Too modern?
How about Juvenal (2ndC AD) quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
Plus ca bloody change.
At least, if nothing else, taxpayers are getting a darn good yarn out of this. The Four Corners’ coverage should be, dare I say, arresting.
Dr Harvey M Tarvydas
A very valuable editorial theme Crikey.
This subject is inevitably as complex as they get in terms of human biology, psychology and quality people management and service delivery.
Ooohhh do I know about corruption!
As a medical practitioner I couldn’t resist assisting my friends and patients when they had unfairly created problems with police or those that were courageously blowing honest whistles on them. Some of the events were beyond belief and resulted in my assisting (undercover) a number of police commissioners in police corruption investigations all the way to uncovering murder of and by police. One event exposed a commissioner.
My following of events in different states leads me to say corruption is everywhere at apparently minor and very serious levels but NSW once had the best corruption repair job of all and NSW still benefits as this prosecution demonstrates.
The quality of Standen’s illegitimate work and subterfuge is testimony to the great quality of the decent police offices that every force has but appreciates and supports less.
Mostly good ‘climbs’ in the direction of the honest committed upward gaze and crap always ‘trickles’ down from above for the endemic outcome which besieges most of our police forces and justice systems.
Alas this part of my nature is always getting me into trouble.
Just watched the 4 Corners episode. Popcorn, check. Feet up on sofa, check. All set for a great evening of thoroughly enjoyable schedanfreude, minus the guilt. Nothing like a NSW Police corruption scandal, we hadn’t had one for a while and even by NSW standards this one was a beauty!
Main thing that came out to me was how thick and/or arrogant Standen was. Organising international drug shipments from your work PC? Sending/receiving emails using assumed names on your work PC? Or is it just indicative of the culture of the Commission?
I LOL’d when it turned out that these amateurs were themselves shafted by their Pakistani drug suppliers, who obviously were professionals.
Why didn’t Standen’s extravagant expenditure raise questions earlier? If he had such character flaws, how on earth did he get the presumably very high-level security clearance he would have needed for his job?
And the big question the program raised was how long had this been going on.
Epic fail, even by NSW standards of crookedness and incompetence…