Curb on police internal investigators

The police internal affairs unit has been stripped of responsibility for investigating major police incidents after its widely criticised decision to arrest officers involved in the fatal Carlisle shooting in November.

Police Commissioner Karl O'Callaghan denied yesterday the move was a rebuke but his decision to sideline internal affairs has been applauded by the Police Union, which described the arrests of four officers involved in the rescue of hostage Sheila Tran as "disgusting".

Premier Colin Barnett also said at the time he thought it was "totally inappropriate".

Mr O'Callaghan's decision means shooting incidents will now be investigated by the major crime squad, which investigates all murders.

Motor vehicle incidents such as fatal pursuit crashes would be handled by the major crash squad and internal affairs would be called in only once initial investigations had been completed.

"In other words, IAU can come in after the event, rather than during the event," he said.

Union president George Tilbury said he was pleased the Commissioner had listened to the concerns of rank-and-file officers and that clear lines of control at critical incidents would now be established.

Despite the move, Mr O'Callaghan said he could not guarantee an officer would not be arrested if investigators deemed it appropriate.

He said a review of the incident by Assistant Commissioner Lawrence Panaia found the arrests by internal investigators were not unlawful or malicious.

However, the report did say there were other ways it could have been handled.

"The report doesn't say what the correct decision was, the report says the decision was not unlawful and there are alternatives that could have been used," he said. "It didn't say they should have been used."

Mr O'Callaghan said he might have handled the situation differently but said the investigators maintained they had a reasonable suspicion of a criminal offence.

The four officers were arrested and detained for up to 13 hours after police shot dead Brendan John Lindsay after he took Ms Tran, a lunch bar worker, hostage and threatened to kill her with a kitchen knife.

As well as the arrests, the union also criticised the way officers involved were denied medical attention, including the right to clean Mr Lindsay's blood off their hands, and were left isolated on a roadside and visibly upset in full public view.

In a directive sent to all police on Tuesday, Mr O'Callaghan told them that in future, the safety and welfare of officers would take precedence over evidence-gathering to minimise the risk of bloodborne or other communicable diseases.

"We could have got counselling to them quicker, we could have allowed them to wash themselves quicker, we could have got them out of the public eye quicker and a lot of that would have made some of the tensions go away that sort of grew up out of it."

He said he could not direct officers not to arrest their colleagues in any future inquiry because police actions were not always justified.

He said the criminal investigation into the shooting was finished and none of the officers involved would face criminal charges. But an internal investigation was continuing.

'We could have got counselling to them quicker, we could have allowed them to wash themselves quicker.'" *Police Commissioner *

• * *Karl O'Callaghan *