Police drugs complaint

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The Advertiser - South Australia

Edition 1 - STATETHU 05 DEC 2002, Page 025

 

Police drugs complaint - Insufficient evidence: report

By MELISSA KING

 

A COMPLAINT that a police officer gave his son confiscated marijuana has resulted in a call for all police stations to be equipped with scales.

 

The Police Complaints Authority investigated a complaint in July, 2001, that a police officer had allowed his son access to confiscated cannabis.

 

"There was insufficient evidence to substantiate the complaint,'' the authority says in its annual report tabled in Parliament yesterday.

 

The PCA recorded an increase in complaints against police officers last financial year, the report shows.

 

The report for 2001-02 by authority Tony Wainwright says there were 1191 new complaints, compared with 1147 the previous year.

 

Mr Wainwright says that on the confiscated drugs, the police station mentioned in the complaint did not have scales on which to weigh seized drugs and was therefore not recording the weight of the drugs when they were seized.

 

``I subsequently became aware that there may be other police stations in the same position,'' he says.

 

``As a result of my concern over this issue I recommended that all police stations be equipped with a set of scales on which the weight of drugs can be determined and made further recommendations regarding the weight of exhibits being checked during all audits of drug exhibit records.''

 

Mr Wainwright says he wrote to the Police Commissioner on this issue in August last year and had been told in January this year the ``matter is currently under discussion''.

 

Allegations about police failing to perform their duty were common, comprising 277 cases.

 

``What is interesting is that the most commonly made principal allegation now concerns what police have not done, rather than what they have done,'' the report says.

 

Complaints included failing to act on a report of a break-in, unanswered phones at a suburban police station, and refusing to act on information about an alleged crime.

 

There were 117 complaints about the use of physical measures, including handcuffs and manhandling, 30 about corruption or favouritism, 187 relating to traffic matters, and 49 about the control of information.

 

Source: The Advertiser - South Australia