AFP ignored officer's safety warnings
An experienced Federal Police Officer has revealed authorities ignored critical safety warnings on Christmas Island.
After serving as a police officer for 13 years, Brendan Thomson's faith in the AFP ended after a posting to Christmas Island.
Despite broken electric fences and faulty CCTV cameras, his biggest concern was the inability of Federal Police to control detainees.
SERCO - the company managing the centre - had no authority to contain a riot, leaving Sgt Thomson's team of six responsible for 3000 asylum seekers.
"We didn't know who was clearly in charge," he said.
"Escapes, riotous violent disorders within the detention centre, acts of arson. It really started to escalate."
Mr Thomson told senior AFP members a dangerous situation was building. The warnings were ignored and his team was sent home to Canberra.
"At that point, I formed a reasonable belief that the chain of command had broken down. That somewhere that information had been lost or corrupted," he said.
He felt obligated to email the Federal Police Commissioner.
Documents obtained under Freedom of Information show Tony Negus forwarded that email to Mr Thomson's superiors, revealing his identity as a whistle blower.
Brendan Thomson was then charged with misconduct for contacting the Commissioner directly.
"Not in my wildest dreams did I think that would be forwarded back to my command," Sgt Thomson told 7 News.
17 days later, the SIEV 221 (asylum boat) smashed into Christmas Island. There were no specially trained rescuers - 50 people died.
"For me to watch the television and see the officer in charge on Christmas Island professionally reduced to throwing life jackets in the water... It was really tough."
Then the March 2011 riots erupted - it took 24 hours for specialist police to return to the island, by which time $2.5 million damage was done.
"Obviously my reporting was then clearly vindicated and it sort of became a very lonely place to work after that," he said.
There's since been an Inquiry and Independent Review but details on why Mr Thomson's team was withdrawn are unclear.
Sgt Thomson has asked the Minister for Home Affairs, Jason Clare for an inquiry into the AFP. He says lessons need to be learned before history is repeated on Nauru and Manus Island.
In a statement, the minister indicated no inquiry was needed because the government has already accepted 48 formal recommendations.
The AFP refused 7 News’ request for an interview but says it stands by its decisions.
