The Armed Offenders Squad was a unit of the Victorian Police tasked with investigating non-fatal violent crimes. Subject to frequent complaints of police brutality, the squad was disbanded in 2006 following an investigation by the Victorian Office of Police Integrity.
The predecessor of the Armed Offenders Squad was the Armed Robbery Squad, a unit regularly accused of excessive force and violence. The 1979 Beach Inquiry found that the Armed Robbery Squad had committed "abuses... so grave as to warrant the most prompt institution of safeguarding reforms.".[1] In 1999 the Armed Robbery Squad, the Special Response Squad, and the Prison Squad were amalgamated to form the Armed Offenders Squad. At the time of its dissolution in 2006, the Squad was made up of 35 detectives.[2]
Internal culture
The Armed Offenders Squad had their own self-created logo of two golden revolvers with the barrels crossed. When the Squad would submit printed evidence to the Victorian Prosecutor, they superimposed the golden-revolver logo on top of the official Victoria Police badge symbol in contravention of Victorian Police regulations.[1] All Squad members, including the squad's sole female member, adopted a uniform of black suits, white shirts, dark sunglasses and a team-issue black tie featuring the logo. The uniform was based on the clothes worn by the jewel-thieves in the film Reservoir Dogs.[1]
Understaffing meant that the Armed Offenders Squad rarely had a permanent supervisor, operating instead under a succession of acting managers and short-term appointees. The Office of Police Integrity's investigation found that "informal Squad culture ... gained such strength and impenetrability that the chain of command was effectively reversed, to the point where some Squad members considered themselves immune from managerial accountability or authority." When, in 2003, a newly appointed Inspector drew up a comprehensive and detailed action plan to improve the day-to-day operations of the squad, his proposals were ignored until he was transferred out, at which point they were permanently shelved. When interviewed by the Office of Police Integrity, a former Squad manager said: "I’d rather see someone out getting complaints for working... You’re going to accumulate complaints if you work... sure you won’t get any if you just sit around and do nothing."[1]
The Office of Police Integrity found that the Armed Offenders Squad were "contemptuous of the law", "divisive, insular, and exclusionary", and possessed an attitude of "elitist superiority within Victoria Police". Covert surveillance revealed that some members still identified with the disbanded Armed Robbery Squad, with Detective Mark Butterfield saying to a suspect "Welcome to the Armed Robbery Squad" before assaulting him.[1]
Armed Offenders Squad detective Graeme Head crashed his car in Mentone in 2001 after a night of drinking with Squad colleagues. When police arrived and attempted to give him a breathalyser test, Head fled the scene twice and was finally captured with the aid of police dogs. Tests revealed that his blood alcohol level was more than three times the legal limit. When Head was found guilty of drink driving offences two years after the crash, Assistant Commissioner Simon Overland said "a lot has changed in two years" and that the Squad had been reformed since Head's crash.[3]
In October 2005, Detective Inspector Bernie Rankin was appointed to head the Squad. Rankin, former head of the homicide squad and investigator of the Russell Street Bombing, was specifically tasked with reducing the number of complaints the squad was generating. On his appointment, Rankin held a meeting with the Squad members, telling them that their performance had to improve, and that the Inspector had to be notified when prisoners arrived for interrogation. He also warned them that video equipment would be installed in the interview rooms, although this was not arranged for more than two years. Briefings were moved from the informal setting of the Squad kitchen to a new operations room, and new administrative procedures were introduced to make sure that management was informed of the activities of the officers. After this period, there were fewer complaints made against the squad.[1]
Investigation
In July 2005, George Brouwer, the OPI's director, received a letter from a man claiming he had been punched, kicked, elbowed, thrown down a flight of stairs, choked unconscious, and strangled with a plastic bag over his head by three detectives from the Armed Offenders Squad.[4] Later that year the OPI began an investigation into the Squad, codenamed "Operation Air". An initial statistical analysis of complaints indicated an unusually high rate of allegations of violence against the AOS compared to similar squads. Investigators placed covert electronic surveillance equipment in the Armed Offenders Squad's interrogation room at the St Kilda Road Police Station.[1]
Beating of suspect A100
The resulting secret footage revealed one suspect being told, prior to the commencement of a formal interview, that he was not allowed to request a lawyer and that if he did so, the formal audiotape of the interview would be erased and the interview would start afresh. The suspect was codenamed A100 and has been interrogated about the whereabouts of a shotgun used in robberies. A100 was held for six hours, during which he was not given anything to drink or allowed to use the toilet. During the interrogation he was dragged from his chair, assaulted by two officers, and punched and kicked until bloody while the officers yelled, between punches, "Fucking... Armed... Robbery... Squad". After the first assault on the suspect had already happened, Inspector Rankin entered the room for a supposed "welfare check". Rankin told the suspect: "It’s going to be a long hard day for you, pal. ... I suggest you listen to some of the advice that the boys are going to give you. It might be a lot less painful."[1]
The six-hour detention yielded only fourteen minutes of formally taped interview. Detective Mark Butterfield was secretly taped punching the suspect in his ear, which began to bleed, and threatening that the ear would "come off" by the end of the interrogation. Towards the conclusion of the interview, the suspect asked whether he could make a telephone call, for which he was beaten with a telephone by Detective Robert Dabb who said: "Here it is, here's your fucking phone call... piece of shit."[1]
Dissolution and aftermath
In June 2006, the Squad's offices were raided by the OPI. At the time of the investigation, the powerful police union, the Police Association, was headed by Paul Mullett, a former Armed Robbery Squad detective. After the raid, he called for the OPI to be disbanded, calling the investigation a "disgrace".[5]
On 13 September 2006, Chief Commissioner Christine Nixon called a meeting with the Squad's members to announce that the unit was being disbanded. The meeting was covertly recorded and its content leaked to the Herald Sun. The leaker also supplied the Herald Sun with a poem written by a Squad detective, "Ode to the Armed Offenders Squad", which ran in part:
They’ve done a good job, the bosses will say, but know that will last but for a day.
Because some have complained a door was broken, a dog was kicked and neighbours awoken.
But the crim is in the A.O.S. say, the bosses are angry; two complainants today.
So long as there’s bad crooks, they’ll need us around, if they’re rid of us then crime will abound.
Six days later, at a public hearing, Squad detectives Robert Lachlan Dabb, Mark Harrison Butterfield and Matthew Adrian Franc were shown videotape of themselves beating A100. Dabb collapsed in the witness stand when the video was shown. [Hagan, Kate. "Ex-detectives admit to bashing suspect." Age (Melbourne). 26 Feb 2008.] All three claimed not to recognise themselves on the video and denied any involvement in the beating. They were suspended the next day. In response, the Police Association led a rally in Batman Park, which was attended by about 300 police and former members of the Squad, including Dabb, Butterfield, and Franc. The gathering passed resolutions calling for the Squad to be reinstated, for Christine Nixon to resign, and for the OPI to be disbanded. Police Association secretary Paul Mullett told the rally that disbanding the squad would lead to "what's currently occurring in NSW: drive-by shootings, ethnic gangs, race gangs, youth gangs, street gangs, gang rapes by the day".[6] Eventually, Victoria Police guaranteed that the Squad members who were not charged would be guaranteed jobs in the Squad's replacement, the Armed Crime Task Force.[7]
In May 2007, Detective Inspector Bernie Rankin was charged with counselling or procuring the commission of an assault. Dabb, Butterfield and Franc were charged with unlawful assault and lying to the OPI. The charges against Rankin were later dropped.[8] Dabb, Butterfield, and Franc initially seemed likely to fight the charges but later pleaded guilty to assaulting the suspect.[9] Dabb and Butterfield received sentences of ten weeks of community service. Franc was sentenced to five weeks.
With the criminal proceedings finalised, the OPI published its report on the Armed Offenders Squad in October 2008. The report found that replacing the Armed Offenders Squad with an Armed Crime Task Force had increased the percentage of crimes solved from 47% to 80%, and reduced the average number of annual complaints from 10 to less than 1. The report also recommended that video cameras be placed in all Victoria Police vehicles, due to numerous allegations of assaults taking place while suspects were being transported, and that suspects be videotaped from the moment of their arrival at the police station. It was concluded that the Squad was a "cultural relic" and that its members had "[drawn] comfort from the strong support they received from the Police Association".[1] Police Association secretary Paul Mullett would later step down after being charged with perjury and attempting to pervert the course of justice following an unrelated OPI investigation. Cameron Stewart.[10]
↑ Hagan, Kate. "Ex-detectives admit to bashing suspect." Age (Melbourne). 26 February 2008.
↑ "Detective convicted over crash." The Age. 8 March 2003
↑ Hodgson, Shelley. "An unfamiliar role for crime fighters." Herald Sun. 23 September 2006.
↑ "Vic Police Association urge OPI shutdown." Lynn Bell. PM – Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 6 July 2006. Transcript.
↑ "Sack Nixon, cops demand OPI hearing an `inquisition'" Herald Sun 23 September 2006
↑ Armed Offenders Squad officers' jobs guaranteed." ABC Premium News (Australia). 6 October 2006.
↑ "Vic: Charges dropped against police officer." Australian Associated Press. 9 October 2007.
↑ "Ex-police avoid jail." Herald Sun. 28 May 2008.
↑ "Police chief denies vendetta." The Australian. 31 July 2008
Related Research Articles
A detective is an investigator, usually a member of a law enforcement agency. They often collect information to solve crimes by talking to witnesses and informants, collecting physical evidence, or searching records in databases. This leads them to arrest criminals and enable them to be convicted in court. A detective may work for the police or privately.
The Flying Squad is a branch of the Serious and Organised Crime Command within London's Metropolitan Police Service. The squad's purpose is to investigate robberies.
In the United Kingdom and many former British colonies, Criminal Investigation Department (CID) is the generic name for the branch of a police force to which most plainclothes detectives belong. A force's CID is distinct from its Special Branch.
The West Midlands Serious Crime Squad was a police unit in the English West Midlands which operated from 1974 to 1989. It was disbanded after an investigation into allegations of incompetence and abuse of power on the part of some of the squad's members. Some of this misconduct resulted in wrongful convictions, including the high-profile case of the Birmingham Six. The sister Regional Crime Squad based at Bilston was responsible for the investigation of the Bridgewater Four.
The Russell Street bombing was the 27 March 1986 bombing of the Russell Street Police Headquarters complex in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The explosion killed Angela Taylor, the first Australian policewoman to be killed in the line of duty. The materials for the bomb were stolen from Tyrconnel Mine. Several men were arrested for suspected involvement with the bombing. Stanley Taylor and Craig Minogue were convicted of murder and various other offences related to the bombing. Peter Reed and Rodney Minogue were acquitted of any offences related to the bombing but Reed was convicted of a number of offences related to his arrest, which involved a shootout with police officers injuring himself and an officer. He was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment.
The Walsh Street police shootings were the 1988 murders of two Victoria Police officers: Constables Steven Tynan, 22, and Damian Eyre, 20.
The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office (JSO) is a joint city-county law enforcement agency, which has primary responsibility for law enforcement, investigation, and corrections within the consolidated City of Jacksonville and Duval County, Florida, United States. Duval County includes the incorporated cities of Jacksonville, Atlantic Beach, Baldwin, Jacksonville Beach, and Neptune Beach; the beach cities have their own police departments as well.
The Office of Police Integrity (OPI) was the Victorian independent police oversight and anti-corruption agency established by the Victorian Government in November 2004. OPI ceased operation on 9 February 2013 and was replaced by the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission (IBAC).OPI's official role was to detect, investigate and prevent police corruption and serious misconduct and to ensure that police members had regard to the human rights set out in the Victorian Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities.
Derek Creighton "Bertie" Smalls was considered by many as Britain's first supergrass. Although there have been informers throughout history – the Kray twins were partly convicted two years before Smalls on evidence given by Leslie Payne – the Smalls case was significant for three reasons: the first informer to give the police volume names of his associates and provide the evidence that would send dozens of them to prison to serve long sentences; the first criminal informer to strike a written deal with the Director of Public Prosecutions; the only criminal informer to serve no time for his crime in return for providing Queen's evidence.
Sweeney 2 is a British action film by Euston Films, released cinematically in the UK in 1978. A crime drama about the Flying Squad, a division of London's Metropolitan Police, it was made as a sequel to the successful 1977 film Sweeney!, which was a spin-off from the popular British television series The Sweeney (1974-78). Some of the action in the film is transferred from the usual London setting to Malta.
The Criminal Investigation Branch (CIB) is one of the main branches of the New Zealand Police and it is dedicated to investigating and solving serious crime, and targeting organized crime and recidivist criminals. The CIB has existed since the civil Police Force was formed in 1886 by the Police Force Act 1886.
The Millennium Dome raid was an attempted robbery of the Millennium Dome's diamond exhibition in Greenwich, South East London occurring on 7 November 2000. A local gang planned to ram-raid the De Beers diamond exhibition which was being held in the riverside Dome at the time. The gang had then planned to escape via the Thames in a speedboat.
Started in 2008, Model Crime Investigations is a student-associated international conference. Model Crime Investigations is held annually in South Korea so it is usually known as KMCI. MCI is an extracurricular activity where students gather to learn about how a police department operates, as well as about how the broader criminal justice system functions. In the actual conference of simulation, participants will debate upon civil or criminal cases to find culprits among virtual suspects in committees. Unlike scientific investigation, in Model Crime Investigation participants usually interrogate suspects in oral arguments, and gather verbal evidence. Issues that can be discussed will vary from minor cases such as robbery to major crimes such as international terrorism, which are currently happening all around us. During the sessions, students who charge the investigation will have to work on affidavit by summarizing the points given by the suspects and witnesses, for the purpose of exterminating crimes by means such as arrest and/or complaint; and prosecute suspects. Along with Model United Nations, Moot Court, Mock Trial, or Model Congress, Model Crime Investigations aims to build students' global perspective.
The Oakland Police Department (OPD) is a law enforcement agency responsible for policing the city of Oakland, California, United States. As of June 2020, the department employed 792 sworn officers and 371 civilian employees. The department is divided into 5 geographical divisions policing Oakland's 78 square miles and population of 420,000. The OPD handles processes 550k annual calls for service, and handles over 250k annual law enforcement incidents.
The Detective Bureau is one of 20 bureaus that constitute the New York City Police Department and is headed by the three star Chief of Detectives.
The Sweeney is a 2012 British action drama film, inspired by the 1970s The Sweeney, the British television police drama of the same name, but set in contemporary London. Written and directed by Nick Love, from a story by Love and John Hodge, it is based on the characters created by Ian Kennedy Martin. It stars Ray Winstone as Jack Regan, Plan B as George Carter, and Damian Lewis as Frank Haskins, with Allen Leech and Hayley Atwell.
In 2004 the murders of Terence and Christine Hodson caused the Victorian government to establish the Office of Police Integrity to investigate probable Victoria Police involvement in the murders and to investigate the leaking of sensitive police information to the Melbourne underworld.
The Impossible Dead is a novel written by the Scottish author, Ian Rankin. It is the sequel to the previous novel, The Complaints. Like the previous book the crime thriller theme is continued throughout and outlines an investigation carried out by the protagonist, Malcolm Fox.
Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) is a dreaded controversial unit of the Nigeria Police Force. The Special Anti-Robbery Squad is a unit under the Force Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department headed by the Deputy Inspector General of Police Anthony Ogbizi. The DIG receives its directives from the Inspector General of Police. SARS as it is popularly called is known for extortion, torture, framing up suspects and even blackmail. While the police unit has proven effective against crime, it is believed that the unit is corrupt. SARS have become a controversial police unit in Nigeria since 2012 according to reports.
In March 2017, Nicholas Churton was murdered at his home in Wrexham by Jordan James Lee Davidson. The case resulted in three Independent Police Complaints Commission investigations.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
