Police Journal April 2017 by Police Journal

APRIL 2017

THE KILLING OF TING FANG “I don’t think there was any chance she would’ve been able to put up a fight against him.” TI

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Police Association

E EDITOR

As you leaf through the pages of this issue it’ll be impossible to miss our exciting redesign. It is the product of months of input – chiefly by our graphic designer, Sam Kleidon – and it covers the whole of the journal. This is the first major freshening-up we’ve given the journal in more than four years. Our now former design worked extremely well and won multiple awards since we launched it in February 2013. But here, at the Police Association, we don’t rest on our laurels or take our readers for granted. That’s despite the fact that we publish Australia’s leading and most awarded police magazine. Association president Mark Carroll summed it up well last year. He said we would “… keep striving to improve (the journal) and to be even more innovative”. And that’s exactly what we reckon we’ve done with this redesign. And, on its debut, it gives great visual effect to our feature stories. Major Crime detective brevet sergeant Damian Britton sat down to chat with me about the murder of a Sydney sex worker in Adelaide back in 2015. Two other Police Association members told me the dramatic story of a rescue they performed at extraordinary risk to their own lives. I trust this special issue engages you; and please let me know how you find the new design.

Brett Williams brettwilliams@pj.asn.au

Publisher: Police Association of South Australia Level 2, 27 Carrington St, Adelaide SA 5000 T (08) 8212 3055 F (08) 8212 2002 www.pasa.asn.au Editor: Brett Williams (08) 8212 3055 Design: Sam Kleidon 0417 839 300 Advertising: Police Association of South Australia (08) 8212 3055 Printing: Finsbury Green (08) 8234 8000 The Police Journal is published by the Police Association of South Australia, 27 Carrington St, Adelaide, SA 5000, (ABN 73 802 822 770). Contents of the Police Journal are subject to copyright. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission of the Police Association of South Australia is prohibited. Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the editor. The Police Association accepts no responsibility for statements made by advertisers. Editorial contributions should be sent to the editor (brettwilliams@pj.asn.au). 4

Police Journal

President 8

Committed to the plan for continuing success Letters 22

President right about culture Q&A 23

Have the changes to police-station opening hours been successful? Industrial 27

Summer leave too tightly restricted Health 29

Not quite The Six Million Dollar Man Motoring 30

Land Rover Discovery Sport / Hyundai Elantra Banking 33

You might not know everything about SA Legal 35

Police Disciplinary Tribunal not your foe

Entertainment 36

Wine 41

The Last Shift 46

On Scene 48

Cops’ creatures 58

10 20 58 April 2017 10 The killing of Ting Fang Major Crime detectives faced some tough challenges in this investigation: a victim from interstate; a serious language barrier; and only circumstantial evidence on which to build their case.

20 Willingly into the blaze Extraordinary luck befell a driver when, after ending up trapped in his burning car, two passing cops stopped to save his life.

COVER: Major Crime detective brevet sergeant Damian Britton April 2017

Mark Carroll President 0417 876 732

Tom Scheffler Secretary 0417 817 075

Jim Tappin Treasurer

Mitch Manning

Samantha Strange

Trevor Milne Deputy President

Daryl Mundy

Chris Walkley

Michael Kent

Julian Snowden

Committee

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Level 2, 27 Carrington St, Adelaide SA 5000 www.pasa.asn.au

Staff INDUSTRIAL

EXECUTIVE SECRETARIES

FINANCE

Bernadette Zimmermann Assistant Secretary

Jan Welsby

Wendy Kellett

Matthew Karger Grievance Officer

Anne Hehner

OFFICE ASSISTANT

Nadia Goslino Grievance Officer

Sarah Stephens

Caitlin Blackney

RECEPTION

Shelley Furbow

Allan Cannon Vice-President

DELEGATES Metro North Branch

Country South Branch cont.

Port Adelaide Kim Williams (chair)

Millicent

Nicholas Patterson

Henley Beach

Matthew Kluzek

Murray Bridge

Kym Cocks

Holden Hill

Nigel Savage

Naracoorte

Grant Baker

Gawler

David Savage

Renmark

James Bentley

Golden Grove

Stuart Smith

Parks

Sonia Giacomelli

Salisbury

Taryn Trevelion

Paul Manns

Police Academy

Rhett Vormelker

Police Band

Neil Conaghty

Country North Branch

ACB

Jo Curyer

Port Lincoln Lloyd Parker (chair)

Comcen

Brenton Kirk

Coober Pedy

Jeff Page

Firearms

Brett Carpenter

Kadina

Ric Schild

Kelly Lavington

Peterborough

Nathan Paskett

Ian Upton

Port Augusta

Peter Hore

Port Pirie

Gavin Mildrum

Whyalla

Les Johnston

Northern Traffic

Michael Tuohy

Crime Command Branch Fraud Jamie Dolan (chair)

Nicholas Damiani

POLICE JOURNAL

Transit

Richard Hern

Womens Branch

Alex Grimaldi

Holden Hill

Narelle Smith

ATSI Branch

South Coast

Jason Tank

Sturt

Brad Scott

Shane Bloomfield (chair) (no delegates)

Officers Branch

Les Buckley

Metro South Branch

Adelaide

Ralph Rogerson

Netley

Toby Shaw

Norwood

Rebecca Phillis

South Coast

Andrew Bradley

Southern Traffic

Peter Tellam

Southern Prosecution Andrew Heffernan

Mount Gambier Andy McClean (chair) Browyn Hunter Manager

Traffic David Kuchenmeister

Adam Gates

Country South Branch

POLICE CLUB

Mark Buckingham

Forensic Services

Sturt Michael Quinton (chair)

MEDIA AND COMMUNICATIONS

State Tac/ Op Mandrake

Adelaide

Ben Horley

Intelligence Support Kevin Hunt

Brett Williams Editor

Mounted Ops Melanie Whittemore

Kayt Howe (chair) (no delegates)

Elizabeth

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Dog Ops Bryan Whitehorn (chair) Police Academy

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REPRESENTATIVES COHSWAC Bernadette Zimmermann Housing Bernadette Zimmermann Leave Bank Bernadette Zimmermann Legacy

Allan Cannon

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Tom Scheffler

Superannuation Bernadette Zimmermann

Tom Scheffler

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Matthew Karger

April 2017

• Maintain its significant influence with government, political parties and the SA police force. • Remain financially stable, and maintain its long-term financial viability through diverse income streams. • Ensure that members are satisfied with the level and diversity of services it provides. Members will rightly hold us to account on these objectives. And, to achieve them, we will engage any obstacle.

P President

Mark Carroll

Police Club renovations

Committed to the plan for continuing success T

he Police Association rightly takes pride in its reputation, high achievements, clout, and 106-year history. We have authored a new five-year strategic plan which outlines the actions that will consolidate these pillars of success. As Australia’s first police union, our record is long and storied. It includes triumphs over political, industrial and financial attacks. Battles we fought for our members over insulting pay offers in the early 1990s brought police and their supporters onto the streets of Adelaide to protest against the government of the day. Our strategic plan (2017-2022) begins at a time when the association has finalized a sixth successful enterprise agreement and continues to enjoy membership of more than 99 per cent. The strength and support of our membership, combined with overwhelming public confidence in police, has enabled us to deliver essential outcomes. 8

Police Journal

But results must continue to flow and, as an organization, we must be ever-improving and adapting to change in society and the workplace. The association can never afford to lose touch with issues of importance to the membership. The onus is on us to keep our core responsibilities in the sharpest focus. Also incumbent upon us is to continue to review our range of services and explore new opportunities. With these factors in mind, the committee of management decided to implement a plan to realize the association’s goals and objectives, meet challenges, and avoid potential hazards. The five-year strategic plan lists five visions for the organization to achieve by 2022. The association must: • Maintain its high level of membership (currently at more than 99 per cent). • Continue as a democratic, transparent and professional organization with a highly skilled team, held in high regard by the membership and the community of South Australia.

The association can never afford to lose touch with issues of importance to the membership. The onus is on us to keep our core responsibilities in the sharpest focus.

An exciting new phase for the Police Club begins this year, with the opening of a mini-café facing Carrington St at the building’s front. Some refurbishments took place earlier this year and I encourage members to visit the club for a drink or a meal or to just check out the refreshed look. The next step is the building and opening of the street-facing café. This will involve the redesigning of the front section of the club to make way for a hole-in-the-wall-style coffee shop with a specialist barista. The club has a special place in many members’ hearts. It is, afterall, the only remaining police club of its type in Australia. But to remain viable, the club must move with the times and continue to bring innovation, and that’s what these projects aim to achieve.

Police continue to fight scourge of terrorism Two recent terrorist attacks in Egypt killed dozens of innocent people and injured more than 100 others. In one of the attacks, on a church in Alexandria, a suicide bomber tried to storm the entrance before being stopped by three courageous police officers. Those officers – Ahmed Ibrahim, Brigadier General Nagwa El-Haggar and Emad El-Rakiby – all lost their lives as the terrorist detonated his bomb. These incidents closely follow other horrific acts of terrorism in Stockholm and London in recent weeks.

A national criminal intelligence system and dedicated interoperable public safety mobile broadband are among the initiatives the PFA has proposed to streamline the fight against terrorism.

Four people died in the Stockholm attack and at least 15 were injured. In London, five people died and more than 50 were injured as a result of the attacks on Westminster Bridge and Parliament Square. One of those deaths was Metropolitan Police constable Keith Palmer. PC Palmer died protecting the gates of parliament when the killer stabbed him after ploughing into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge. Three other officers were injured during the attacks. More than 5,000 police officers are expected to assemble in London for PC Palmer’s funeral. They will line the route to South Cathedral for the service. Such a display is typical of police forces all over the world, and highlights the camaraderie that we know to be the cornerstone of the police family. The Metropolitan Police Federation in London has launched a memorial fund in memory of PC Palmer. Members can donate to the fund on PASAweb. Police all over the world are not only a favoured target of terrorists, but must respond to these attacks and risk their own lives to protect their communities. These British and Egyptian officers not only risked their lives, they sacrificed them. The Police Association extends its sincere condolences to their colleagues and families. We also commend the other officers who, at the scene of the attacks, undoubtedly faced unspeakable horrors as they stepped up to protect innocent civilians. Here, in Australia, police must stay ahead of the game. In my role as Police Federation of Australia president, I’ve made it a priority to lobby the federal government for a consistent national approach to terrorist activity. A national criminal intelligence system and dedicated interoperable public safety mobile broadband are among the initiatives the PFA has proposed to streamline the fight against terrorism. No one can expect police to face the scourge of terrorism with anything short of the best practices and highest quality support, and that must come from federal funding.

Mark Carroll: “… I’ve made it a priority to lobby the federal government for a consistent national approach to terrorist activity.”

April 2017

Detective Brevet Sergeant Damian Britton

THE KI TI 10

Police Journal

ILLING OF TING FANG

Some might disapprove of sex work, but Ting Fang – a pretty, outgoing young woman – meant no one any harm. Not even the monster who needlessly murdered her. By Brett Williams

April 2017

ajor Crime detectives had just shown up at his front door. It was after 11 o’clock on a Thursday night and cold-blooded killer Chunguang Piao had every reason to be nervous. In a city hotel room fewer than 24 hours earlier, on New Year’s morning, he had murdered petite, defenceless Chinese sex worker Ting Fang. He had beaten her with her own stiletto and slashed her throat with a razor blade. And yet now, confronted by the detectives, Piao did not sweat, shake, fidget or show any sign of nervousness. “He was unbelievably calm,” Detective Brevet Sergeant Damian Britton recalls. “I was more nervous than him. “He maintained that composure throughout the next two-and-a-half hours while we searched his house and spoke to him about his movements. “He came up with a story straightaway, (saying) that: ‘I was there, I saw the girl, and then I left. The girl told me she had two more clients after me. I wasn’t the last client.’ ” And, in his accented voice, a seemingly confident Piao assured the detectives that he was happy to help them with their enquiries. In reality, of course, he sought not to help but rather thwart the Major Crime investigation while ever it implicated him. After the detectives finished their search and conversation and had taken a buccal swab from Piao, they left with an iPhone, clothes and cash they had seized. 12

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Back in the hotel room, Forensic Response investigators had found the murder scene intact. Fang, clothed in black leggings, a long-sleeved pink jumper and an undershirt, and weighing just 48kg, lay dead on the floor. The slashing of her throat had left “a lot of blood” around her and a smaller quantity on a chair in a corner. Blood was also obvious on a mattress sitting atop a king-size bed, which was slightly out of position, indicating a struggle. In the bathroom basin was the murder weapon, the razor blade, in among some used baby wipes, a few of which had absorbed some blood. In the bath – which had overflowed for so long that water had begun to seep into the room below – were sheets from the bed. And among those wet sheets was the phone Fang had used to keep in contact with Xin (not his real name), her minder-cum-driver. The scene was clearly gruesome; and the victim could have been any innocent sex worker. But timing worked against 25-year-old Sydney resident Fang, whose working name was Honey. Her schedule of a few days’ work in Adelaide coincided with the day Piao, a business owner with no criminal record, chose to commit murder. His first move in the lead-up to his vicious crime came around 3pm on New Year’s Eve, 2014. He logged on to Chinese messaging service WeChat to book an hour with a sex worker starting at 10pm that evening.

Above: the blood-stained, out-of-position mattress; facing page, below: the chair in the corner of the room; above, clockwise from top left: the stiletto found near Fang’s body; baby wipes in the bathroom basin; bed sheets in the bath.

Fang had arrived in Adelaide two days earlier and checked in to the Hotel Grand Chancellor in Hindley St. She had booked her flight and the escort agency she was working for in Adelaide had arranged her pick-up from the airport and accommodation. Her plan was to work in Adelaide for a few days and, then, return to Sydney with a percentage of her earnings after paying the agency its fee. She had done exactly that several times before – without any problems. “The girls in this industry rarely work in their own cities for fear of running into a customer,” Britton explains. “So the girls fly around the country; and Fang came to Adelaide up to eight times in the 18 months or so that she’d worked for the Adelaide business. “The Chinese clients were quite wellto-do people. (They had) the financial means to pay for that kind of service. “Quite often they were married or had girlfriends, had their own businesses themselves, and this was just one of their vices.” Piao arrived a few minutes early for his 10 o’clock appointment with Fang, whose room number he did not yet know. To get it, he would have to call Xin as was the established practice. “And that’s the first and only time the client gets to know what room of the hotel she’s in,” Britton explains. Fang, who had seen 16 clients since her December 29 arrival in Adelaide, was not quite ready at the designated time. And not until she was ready, a few minutes later, did Xin give Piao the room number. So, just after 10pm, Fang welcomed her killer into the room and, soon after, at 10:40pm, she sent Xin a text message. Piao had requested another hour with her and, in line with practice, she was seeking the okay. Xin gave the okay but, after a few more minutes, Fang sent another text message outlining a further request from Piao. He wanted to book Fang for the whole night and seemed willing to pay a premium for her services. “According to the messages Fang sent (Xin), Piao suggested $2,100, which is in excess of what you’d normally pay for an overnight booking,” Britton explains. “Overnight’s $1,500; two hours is $600.

So it was a bit unusual, especially in that kind of industry. You know your rates, you know what you’re paying, and you wouldn’t be offering up an extra $600. “I suspect he’s done that knowing that he was never going to stay the night. It was just a ruse to cover any other clients coming in at 1 o’clock in the morning and finding her dead.” During her exchange of text messages with Xin, Fang indicated that Piao was impotent. And no evidence of sex between the two would emerge in the later investigation. So the way Fang saw it, according to her text messages, negotiating an overnight arrangement with Piao was a win. It would earn her a lot of money for little work, given his apparent impotence. And she could return to Sydney the next day, as planned, without seeing any other clients. Throughout the evening, Fang engaged in “a lot of communication”.

“… he was never going to stay the night. It was just a ruse to cover any other clients coming in at 1 o’clock in the morning and finding her dead.”

She sent texts to a couple of friends and Xin. He was at a New Year’s Eve party in a nearby suburb. In one text exchange, he reminded Fang that he would pick her up from the hotel in the morning and take her to Adelaide Airport. He also wished her a happy New Year and, at 12:06am, she wished him the same. Eight minutes later, her messaging stopped completely.

Discovering the crime

Just after 7am on New Year’s Day, Xin turned up at the hotel and parked out front, within view of CCTV cameras. He rang Fang but got no answer and so went up to her twelfth-floor room, to which he had a key tag. Once inside, he could hear running water and figured Fang was showering, either alone or with a client. So Xin retreated, went back outside the hotel, waited for a few minutes and rang again, but still got no answer. Then, in yet another attempt to raise Fang, he tried calling her on the hotel’s internal phone network but, again, she did not answer. Xin was now worried. He thought Fang might have left Adelaide without handing over the agency fee. It was his job to collect it. So, he returned to the twelfth floor and, at 7:55am, entered Fang’s room which was in darkness. Only a small shaft of sunlight pierced through the window between curtains, and water was still running in the bathroom. “He peers around the corner and just sees a body on the ground,” Britton says. “He goes over to her, and she’s got a towel on her face. April 2017

“He lifts the towel up with his finger, sees her eyes and just freaks out, runs out and leaves the hotel. He’s panicking now and so goes to the (agency) owner’s house to try to raise him.” Soon after that panicked exit, Xin returned to the hotel with the escort agency owner, Cheng (not his real name), but the flummoxed pair had not yet figured out what to do. As Xin and Cheng deliberated, the hotel manager was heading for Fang’s room. He had received a call from the guest in the room below, where water was seeping in from the now crime scene above. After the manager got to the room, he opened the door, saw Fang’s lifeless body on the floor, and called the police. That was at 8:35am and, by then, Xin had reported his discovery to the hotel reception. Hindley St patrols responded and the scene quickly wound up in lockdown. Local CIB detectives responded too and went about drawing information from Xin and Cheng, whose responses were initially “cagey”. Britton and Detective Brevet Sgt (now Inspector) Campbell Hill – recalled to duty on that New Year’s Day – arrived on the scene around 1:30pm. Forensic Response officers responded too and would spend the rest of that day, and the next, examining the crime scene. “There was quite a lot of work for them to do to try to piece together what had happened,” Britton says. “There were blood spatters here and there, and Fang had some injuries to her head that were consistent with the stiletto heel being used as a club.” In those initial hours, while the case was white hot, Britton and his colleagues gathered evidence quickly. Part of it was CCTV footage of people traffic in the hotel’s ground floor, and other footage from cameras around the city. That vision clearly showed Piao arriving at the hotel before the murder and sprinting away from it afterward, at 12:33am. Also clear in the hotel footage were all the other clients Fang had seen in the previous days. “But the CCTV wasn’t perfect,” Britton says. “It didn’t identify who they were. We had to figure out who they were and go and speak to them. And all but one of them was Chinese. “If we’d had CCTV in the lift, it would have been a no-brainer. We would’ve been able to establish who was coming in and out of that twelfth floor. “But, thankfully, the vision we did have was still quite compelling; and we had time entries on the door to her room that we were able to cross-reference against the CCTV. “We were able to say that no one entered the room using a key card after 9 o’clock on the 31st until (Xin) came in and opened the room up.” Other valuable evidence came from Fang’s phone. It still worked – despite ending up among wet sheets in the bath – and contained thousands of sent and received text messages. “Without the messages it would have been near 14

Police Journal

impossible to find out what exactly happened that night,” Britton says. In pursuit of more evidence, Britton undertook an on-camera interview with Cheng at the Grenfell St police station around 6pm on New Year’s Day. Out of that conversation came the understanding that Cheng ran his escort agency with his wife. From two mobile phones in his possession, he produced the WeChat usernames and numbers of clients who had booked Fang over the previous few days. That included the username, Huashe, and number of the last client to see Fang. Hill sent that name and number through to the Major Crime intel section, which would soon come up with a hit. But the information the detectives had already gathered from Cheng told them a lot anyway. “The phones we got from (Cheng) showed all the WeChat communications from the clients,” Britton says. “That’s how we could piece together how many people had been there (to see Fang), how much they paid, how much money should have been in the room...” Fang should have had around $8,000 in her room but the Forensic Response officers found only half that amount in a drawer. And Xin insisted that he had not collected any money. Around 10:40pm, after a 9:30pm meeting with a witness in a McDonald’s car park, Britton and Hill got the result of their intel check. The phone number associated with Huashe belonged to Piao. His particulars had wound up on record because, around six months earlier, he had lost some business documents, which someone had handed in to police.

Confronting the killer

So Britton and Hill headed for a western-suburbs address, where Piao lived with his wife and eightmonth-old son. With the two officers were Detective Senior Sergeant Phil Linton, Detective Brevet Sergeant Amanda Bridge and Brevet Sergeant Gavin Bakkelo. When the detectives arrived, Piao – who Britton now considered a suspect – was in bed with his wife and son. As a late-night search and videotaped questioning took place over the following two-and-a-half hours, spouse and child “stayed out of the way”. “I’m not sure if that was his instruction but she didn’t come into the room when we were speaking,” Britton says. Piao, who was then 27 and ran a cleaning business, played the calm, co-operative citizen right to the end of the detectives’ visit. And that visit wound up at 1:50am on January 2, when the detectives left with the iPhone, clothes and cash they had seized. But nowhere had they found the distinctive jeans and shoes they had seen Piao wearing in the CCTV footage. They suspected he had disposed of them.

“Without the messages it would have been near impossible to find out what exactly happened that night.”

In Australian currency, they had found $1,250 in a wallet and jeans belonging to Piao. On his iPhone, most significant messages were missing. Just 15-and-a-half hours after this first encounter with Piao, Britton and three of his Major Crime colleagues went to search his (Piao’s) home again. They now knew, from the findings of an autopsy, that on Fang’s scalp were two crescent-shaped injuries. “We searched for anything that could’ve caused the injuries,” Britton recalls. “We didn’t find anything. We weren’t sure if it was the tip of an iron, like the iron from the hotel room, and we seized that.

“But the search was to also locate clothing better matching CCTV vision of Piao leaving the Grand Chancellor Hotel.” When the detectives finished this second search, they again left with seized items: a shirt, a cardigan, two jumpers and a tomahawk. On January 9, Britton got word of the discovery of a fingerprint on one of Fang’s shoes. But the print, found on the base of the left stiletto, did not feature on the national fingerprint database. So Britton rang Piao and invited him to Adelaide police station to provide the help he had pledged, albeit insincerely. Piao agreed to call in at 9:30am the next day, January 10. He arrived at

Top left: the doorway into Fang’s hotel room; top right: Piao caught on CCTV on the street; above left: cash found in the hotel room drawer; above right: Fang’s phone among the sheets in the bath.

9:40am and joined Britton, Hill and a Mandarin-speaking interpreter in the station interview room. Around 10 minutes later, Piao underwent fingerprinting on a LiveScan fingerprint machine in the station. Then, back in the interview room at 10:15am, Britton got a videotaped conversation under way with Piao. His questions focussed on Piao’s movements on New Year’s Eve but, at 11:42am, he suspended the interview after a knock at the door. And the interruption was for good reason: Piao’s right thumbprint had proved an identical match with the print on the stiletto. April 2017

Left: Piao during the police-station interview with Britton; below: the stiletto, with the upper image showing Piao’s thumbprint.

Even more incriminating was that the position of the thumbprint suggested that Piao had gripped the shoe so as to use it in a striking motion. And, in that scenario, he likely inflicted the injuries to Fang’s head with the stiletto heel. Piao claimed his thumbprint was on the stiletto because, while in the room with Fang, he had removed her shoes from her feet. Says Britton: “It would be highly unusual to remove the left shoe from Fang in a manner that would leave the right thumbprint orientated as it was. To hold the shoe, to take it off, or to move it around (as Piao claimed), you wouldn’t hold it that way.” Britton was satisfied that he now had enough evidence to act against Piao. At 12:04pm, he arrested him for the murder of Ting Fang and informed him of his rights. After that, Piao refused to answer any more questions. And suddenly gone was the charade of calmness and co-operation, replaced by argumentative claims of innocence. It was the most emotion Britton had seen Piao display. “He was quite vocal and in denial of killing her,” Britton says. “He said he wasn’t the last client (Fang saw) and that we’d got it wrong. “He’d interrupt constantly when I was reading him his arrest rights. He wanted to continue to argue the point that he shouldn’t be arrested. So it took a while to get through (to him).” In separate phone calls, Piao got to 16

Police Journal

speak to a Legal Aid representative and Chinese Consul Franklin Wang. Later, just before 6pm, Britton and Hill took Piao to the City Watch House where they formally charged him with murder. But there was still more evidence to gather. Indeed, the next day, acting on information from a witness, Britton and Bridge located a car registered in the name of the cleaning business Piao owned. In debt through gambling, he had pawned the white Volkswagen Caddy for $8,000 in a transaction with a “loan shark” the day before he booked Fang. The van was now in a driveway at a western-suburbs address, where Britton went about searching it. In the driver’s-door recess he found 18 razor blades in a press-seal bag – and they were the same type as the one at the murder scene. Alongside the blades was a receipt marked December 5 from a local cleaning supplies business. The loan-shark transaction, caught on CCTV, had played out in the city and was itself valuable information. Says Britton: “He (Piao) burnt the $8,000 at the casino in the next 24 hours. So he had absolutely no money and then went and saw a sex worker (Fang) where he said he would pay $2,100 to stay with her that night. “So the money just didn’t add up. He went from burning that $8,000 to (supposedly) having $2,100 to pay for her services.”

“To hold the shoe, to take it off, or to move it around (as Piao claimed), you wouldn’t hold it that way.”

“So I had the interpreter say to the mum: ‘We’ll treat this as if it’s my own granddaughter who died.’ And she just burst out crying, put her hands together, and bowed her head, saying: ‘Thank you, thank you.’ ” The family’s anguish

As the investigation continued into the next day, January 12, it sparked extreme emotion – from the shattered Fang family. The parents had arrived from China with their son, who had to undertake the crushing process of identifying his sister’s body in the city morgue. And he and his parents had never known that their beloved Ting had been working in the sex industry. “Everyone broke down, the mum especially,” Britton recalls. “The brother and the father just tried to be stoic I think to help mum, but she was inconsolable the whole time.” Making the experience even tougher for the parents and son was that none of them spoke a word of English. When they faced up to a meeting arranged for them with Major Crime investigators, Detective Superintendent Des “Doc” Bray spoke to them through an interpreter. He could see that they were griefstricken and perhaps even wondering how seriously police would take a foreigner’s death in Australia. “You could tell that they didn’t have any understanding of our culture, our way of life, how we do an investigation,” Bray recalls. “And, as a team, we wanted them to understand that it was really important to us to make the person who had done this accountable. “So I had the interpreter say to the mum: ‘We’ll treat this as if it’s my own granddaughter who died.’ And she just burst out crying, put her hands together, and bowed her head, saying: ‘Thank you, thank you.’ “I think that gave the family an immense degree of comfort knowing that police in South Australia would commit to that investigation like it was our own family.”

Friends in disbelief

By late January, detectives still had only a minimum of background information about the life Fang had led in Australia. To find out all they could, Britton and Senior Constable First Class Elise Twiggs travelled to Sydney to speak with her friends and acquaintances. “They just spoke of her as a normal, friendly, outgoing girl, who worked as a beautician and studied,” Britton says. “Not one of them had any clue that she was involved in the sex industry. Her friends couldn’t believe it.” Study was the reason Fang had come to Australia in 2007, and she had worked in not only the beauty industry but in other regular jobs as well. The detectives found no evidence that anyone had coerced her into sex work. Piao, who had come to Australia from China in 2010 and married an Australian resident, had engaged sex workers before. “At least four times that we can show,” Britton says. “In fact, he’d gone to see a girl just one week before (the murder) at the same hotel. “And we were able to speak to two girls he’d seen in December who were able to give statements about his demeanour and behaviour.” Enquiries the detectives made into Piao’s business – which employed a secretary and Chinese students as cleaners – revealed that it was “reasonably successful”. But Piao was a chronic gambler with “financial issues” and the subject of a casino barring order. And the detectives found that, only 40 minutes before his appointment with Fang, Piao had received a “threatening (text) message”. Someone – who later refused to give a statement – was demanding $3,000 of him by the next day.

The true intention

This led Britton to suspect that Piao had booked Fang not for sex but rather to rob her of her three days’ earnings. Evidence of that scenario lay in the $1,250 detectives had found in his possession and another $1,000 he deposited into an ATM after the murder. “He was generally a person who had no cash on him,” Britton says. “He was always borrowing money from people and struggling to make ends meet.” Text messages indicated that Piao intended to go to an ATM after midnight to draw out money, which he did not have, to pay for the whole night with Fang. “It might have been the case that she was getting ready to go out with him,” Britton says. “So she might have been putting her shoes on and, while she was bent down, he’s belted her with her stiletto to the head, twice. “She’s gotten up and staggered across to the bed where she’s collapsed. Then Piao’s pulled out the razor blade and slit her throat while she was hunched over the bed, perhaps. This is the hypothesis of Forensic Response and it seems to fit.” Another scenario Britton considers possible is that Piao took an opportunity, while Fang was in the bathroom or otherwise occupied, to steal her cash. She might subsequently have caught him in the act, sparking an argument which led to the attack. “I don’t know which (scenario) is correct, but it was brutal and cowardly,” Britton says. “I don’t think there was any chance she would’ve been able to put up a fight against him.” The detectives did not find evidence to suggest that the killing was premeditated. But there seemed little April 2017

or no other purpose in Piao taking a razor blade to an appointment with a sex worker. And it appeared that, by leaving the blade in the bathroom basin among the baby wipes, Piao had tried to obliterate his involvement in the murder. “The wipes in the basin had DNA from other clients on them,” Britton explains. “I suspect he’s gone to the bin, taken some of them out, and put them in with the blade in the sink. “That’s so that, when we tested the blade, there would be DNA from someone else associated with it. But, because we were able to identify all those clients, and they were able to give statements, we were able to rule that out.”

Below: the blood-stained baby wipes and razor blade found in the bathroom basin.

“That’s so that, when we tested the blade, there would be DNA from someone else associated with it.”

Police Journal

Changing stories

Before Piao went to trial in the Supreme Court, he rang Britton several times while on remand in prison. In one pointless rant, he complained about the prison food and accused Britton of ruining his life and causing him to miss his son’s first birthday. Britton made clear in the phone conversation that he was perfectly willing to speak to Piao, but on video and only about the allegations against him. When more calls came, Britton suggested to Piao that he seek advice and undertake an on-camera interview, which he (Britton) would facilitate. Piao agreed, and Britton took him out of the Adelaide Remand Centre to conduct the interview. It went for two hours, and Piao – who had not sought and did not want any advice – provided some “very unusual answers”. He claimed that he had never himself made the 10 o’clock booking with the escort agency for Fang’s services. His new story was that he went to a park where he met Cheng, who took his (Piao’s) phone from him, made the booking on it, and handed it back. “Then,” Britton says, “he talked about two people being in the hotel room, while he was there, trying to search for something, and how they’re the ones who killed Ting. “So, first, it was that he just went there and left and nothing was wrong. Now it was someone else who had made the booking and two people were in the room as he was cowering in the corner.

“It was at complete odds with his first interview. We ended up winding that interview up and taking him back to the remand centre, but both interviews got played in the later trial.” And in court, where Piao pleaded not guilty and declined to testify, the trial ran for five weeks last year. Fang’s brother sat through the proceedings while his parents remained in Sydney. They chose not to endure witness testimony about the brutality inflicted on their daughter. A few times during the trial, the brother walked out of the courtroom after he became overwhelmed with emotion. But his distress turned to joy after the jury had deliberated for fourand-a-half hours and found Piao guilty of murder. Justice David Lovell, who called the crime brutal, opportunistic and senseless, jailed Piao for life with a non-parole period of 25 years. Piao had chosen not to make any pre-sentencing submissions and continued to deny that he had killed Fang.

The challenges

It had taken 18 months to get to the point of conviction and sentence, and Britton was both “relieved” and “overjoyed” with the outcome. “I don’t know how I would have felt if the jury had found him not guilty,” he says. “I was sitting alongside the brother when the verdict was read out and knew how much it meant to him and his parents. “They deserved to have some recognized form of closure to 18 months of turmoil. “The guilty verdict also gave me a great deal of satisfaction. All the work we’d done to put together what was a purely circumstantial case had paid off, and the jury’s decision validated that.” Today, Britton reflects on what he considers the toughest aspects of the investigation. “Having three key phones without a word of English in them,” he says. “It was a daunting start. “We were tied up with interpreters and needed the help of some local SAPOL members and public servants to translate thousands of messages on Ting’s phone.

Not long before Chunguang Piao killed her, Fang indicated … that she was missing her Sydney home and just wanted to get back there. “And not being able to speak to the family, the brother particularly. That was especially frustrating because he was very invested in (pursuing justice). “I couldn’t send him a text or ring him and just chat to him. I’d always have to go through one of our Chinesespeaking interpreters to pass on a message. Or, if he had a question, it always had to come through them. It was difficult.” Balancing out the difficulties were those who, at risk of embarrassment, contributed willingly to the investigation. Among them were Fang’s clients. Says Britton: “They were all hardworking, decent people who wanted to help as much as they could because she (Fang) died. But they didn’t want to be caught out by their partners for seeing a sex worker.” Support also came from the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China. Its first secretary and consul, who travelled to Adelaide from Canberra, helped Major Crime liaise with China to get the Fang family out to Australia. Members of the local Chinese community gave support to the family too, by staging a fundraiser. The money raised paid for Fang’s cremation and for the parents’ travel from Adelaide back to Sydney. Piao received far less backing, at least in court, where many likely thought he had the appropriate number of supporters: zero. Not even his wife. PJ

A tragically short life T

ing Fang (pictured) was just 17 when she left her home in Fujian Province, China to come to Australia, on her own, to study in 2007. It was a move she made on the suggestion of her English teacher, who considered Fang had a good grasp of the language. She left behind her younger brother and parents. Her father was a taxi driver and her mother had for many years worked in a factory. Apart from their jobs, the parents owned a small plot of land which they rented out to farmers. Fang, who set herself up in Western Sydney, took to her studies in 2008 and stuck with them throughout the following years. Her parents regularly deposited money into an account as a contribution to her schooling costs. And Fang supplemented those funds with money she earned from working odd jobs – in a supermarket, a restaurant and as a beautician. Major Crime detectives investigating her murder found no evidence that anyone had coerced her into the sex industry. It seemed, according to a witness, that she had enquired with a Sydney escort agency about sex work, in which she subsequently became involved. “We don’t know exactly how she got the lead,” Major Crime detective brevet

sergeant Damian Britton says. “Perhaps it was just an advertisement that she saw in a newspaper or online about looking for girls. “Some overseas students hear about it as a way to make some reasonable money and live a lifestyle they probably wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford.” Fang started out working as an escort in Sydney before she likely discovered the option of operating interstate. The advantage of that practice was that sex workers were never likely to run into clients in their home towns. “She moved away from that Sydneybased work to do the interstate trips which would have netted her a fair bit of money,” Britton says. “And she also worked her normal day job as a beautician, waitress, supermarket packer, or whatever she was doing at the time.” Fang had herself approached the escort agency she ended up working for in Adelaide. Britton suspects that she was able to do that through connections she had in Sydney. Not long before Chunguang Piao killed her, Fang indicated to another client that she was missing her Sydney home and just wanted to get back there. Her body was cremated in a Buddhist funeral in suburban Adelaide. PJ

April 2017

Willingly into the blaze Two cops knew they might sustain serious burns in a rescue attempt. But the greater priority to them was the life they saw hanging in the balance. By Brett Williams

Police Journal

ONSCIOUS BUT BADLY INJURED AND IN PAIN, THE TRAPPED YOUNG DRIVER FACED AN AGONIZING DEATH BY FIRE IN HIS CRASHED, SMOKE-FILLED CAR. The Falcon sedan had run off the road and onto a Smithfield roundabout where it had slammed head-on into a Stobie pole back in 2013. It was around 4 o’clock on a Saturday morning in a residential area but it seemed the crash had not stirred the neighbours. No one had yet emerged from any nearby home to help the imperilled driver. His only hope of rescue lay in two junior Elizabeth street cops on night shift. Constables Nicole Waterson and Dennis Geraghty (then a probationer) were approaching the large, shrub-filled roundabout in their patrol car. As they drew nearer to the scene of the crash, at the intersection of Curtis and Coventry roads, Geraghty could see smoke rising up from the roundabout. “We were heading south and we’ve gone: ‘What the hell’s that?’ ” Geraghty recalls. “As

we got closer to where the road levels out, we could see the car against the Stobie pole.” That first view the officers had of the silver Falcon was side-on, which gave them a clear impression of the impact of the crash. The engine bay of the now wrecked car had crumpled around the Stobie pole all the way up to the dashboard. Says Geraghty: “He’d hit (the pole) with such impact that the motor had basically pushed to the side and the whole centre of the car had split.” As their first move, Geraghty and Waterson wisely drove all the way around the roundabout to check for dangling power lines and any other hazards. They found the surrounding area clear and so pulled up around 20 metres from the smoking wreck. Waterson quickly alerted the Communications Centre to the crash and called for firies to attend. At the same time, Geraghty jumped out of the patrol car and trekked across the roundabout toward the wreckage.

“I remember calling up (Comms) again and saying: ‘We need help here right now! We need firies! We can’t get him out!’ ” He had recognized the Falcon, with its distinctive black pinstriping, at the moment he first caught sight of it. Geraghty and Waterson had seen it at a disturbance they attended at Elizabeth Park less than an hour earlier. Now, as it sat mangled on the roundabout, nothing was visible through its tinted windows and cabin full of grey-white smoke. “You literally couldn’t see more than four inches into the car,” Geraghty recalls. So, initially, he could not even tell if anyone was trapped or, worse still, dead behind the wheel. But, as Geraghty got closer, he could hear the sound of desperate cries and realized that someone was indeed inside the car. He went straight up to the driver’s window, saw the trapped driver and instantly recognized him from the earlier disturbance. “The reality was, when I walked up to the car, I was shocked that I could hear someone,” Geraghty says. “I thought: ‘Shit, this guy’s alive!’ And he was in some serious trouble. The (driver’s) seat was in the windscreen.” Geraghty pushed the inflated driver’s airbag down to see if he could spot anyone in the front passenger seat. But the smoke was simply too thick for the eye to penetrate, so Geraghty appealed to the driver. “I said: ‘Mate, is anyone else with you?’ but he wasn’t making any sense at that stage,” Geraghty says. “I knew (his partner) had a couple of kids so my concern was whether there were kids in the car. So I ducked around to check in the passenger side and in the back seat.” Geraghty found no one else in the car and so charged back around to the driver’s side door, which he tried several

Facing page: Constables Nicole Waterson and Dennis Geraghty.

times to yank open. It would not budge until he positioned his feet up on the rear passenger door for leverage as he pulled on the driver’s door. Finally, it flung open, allowing Geraghty to lean some way into the car. He could now see the engine sitting partially in the cabin and the steering wheel hard up against the driver’s chest. But even more alarming were flames which he could see rising up from the centre console. The driver began screaming in pain and yelling: “Get me out! Get me out!” Geraghty tried to pull him out of his twisted seat but the driver was jammed in and seemingly immovable. The situation was now at crisis point and demanded split-second decision-making of the two officers. They had to consider that fitted to the Falcon was an LPG tank with, of course, the potential to explode. And, if the tank did not explode, the entire car could still burst into flames if the fire in the centre console was to get ahold. In either scenario, the driver would surely have died. So, wrenching him out of the car might have seemed the only option, but that ran the risk of worsening his injuries. And the flames in the console were starting to burn his legs. Says Geraghty: “I was thinking: ‘If I douse it (the fire), I’m going to buy some time until I’ve got MFS and paramedics here.’ I thought he would have to have spinal injuries, would have to have broken legs.” In any case, it was for the two junior cops to decide what to do – in an instant. Geraghty called on Waterson to grab the fire extinguisher from the police car boot. “I’d never really tried to undo the fire extinguisher before but I yanked it out,” Waterson says. “It felt like it took forever but it was probably only a split-second.” As Waterson grabbed the extinguisher, Geraghty leaned over the driver to try to release his seatbelt. In that endeavour, he moved his hand directly through flames but got no reward for his effort. Neither he nor Waterson could find the seatbelt buckle. It had likely wound up wedged between the seat and console and become inaccessible to the rescuing cops.

So, then, with the fire extinguisher from the patrol car, Geraghty tried to douse the flames rising up from the console. “It put (the flames) out for a splitsecond,” he says, “but they came back straightaway.” And applying the extinguisher left Geraghty with a backwash of smoke and powder directly in his face and mouth. Yet, in that moment in which the fire wound up temporarily doused, he and Waterson again tried to, but could not, get the driver’s seatbelt released. Says Waterson: “That (seatbelt) was doing its job keeping him in the car, I guess, but we couldn’t pull him out. “I remember calling up (Comms) again and saying: ‘We need help here right now! We need firies! We can’t get him out!’ And the Comms operator said: ‘Yeah, we’re sending back up to you.’ “I remember Dennis saying something on the radio, too. We were just getting a bit desperate.” Geraghty, in his transmission, stressed the point that the driver was simply going to die if he and Waterson could not free him. “They’re gurus,” Geraghty says of the Comms operators. “I said: ‘The car’s getting more and more flames,’ and the Comms guy said: ‘Yeah, I've got everyone coming to you.’ ” Just then, the two officers spotted a security guard passing by in his car. They yelled out to him to stop and hand them his fire extinguisher. “He ended up grabbing it for me and I ran back over to the car with it,” Waterson says. But, by now, the flames were rising even higher and unlikely to die out from a spray of the security guard’s small extinguisher. Waterson gave it a shot but the device had no impact on the fire. “I just ditched it,” she says, “and I said to Dennis: ‘We need to get him out now!’ We both just knew we were going to have to do it one way or another.” Flames, which Geraghty could feel on his legs, were now emerging from underneath the Falcon. Inside the car, the flames had grown more fierce and were licking at the roof. Continued page 26 April 2017

L Letters

Letters to the editor can be sent by: Regular mail Police Journal, PO Box 6032, Halifax St, Adelaide SA 5000 Email editor@pasa.asn.au Fax (08) 8212 2002 Internal dispatch Police Journal 168

President right about culture I commend the president of the Police Association on his article Heads full of barbed wire (Police Journal, February 2017). I accept his highlighted comment relative to organization and management cultures which leave me disappointed because I would have hoped that, with the commissioners since David Hunt, the necessary changes would have been brought about. I have been writing my memoirs and made some suggestions to bring about change which should assist. First, senior officers should be contracted so that those who crawled through, or don’t act to a necessary standard, could be stood down. Second, a means whereby NCOs or ORs can bring to attention the defects which cause the problems referred to by the president. Matters referring to domestic violence must be investigated. In my experience, I found victims were reluctant to comment through fears of losing income or accommodation, and neighbours were fearful of retaliation from a police officer or his mates. My memoirs, which I am writing without any intention of them being a saleable book, are intended for minimal distribution to a few with enough interest to read. Ken Thorsen, OAM

Direct but sensitive I just got my copy of the Police Journal and I am absolutely stoked with the story on Seamus Flynn (Final warning, Police Journal, February 2017). Straight to the point and very sensitive. Thanks so much. I will send an electronic copy of it to a couple of his retired mates interstate.

Final warning Even as he languishes in the unyielding grip of prostate cancer, Seamus Flynn has his mind on a life-saving message for cops.

Above left: All Australian basketball selection in 1978 (Flynn far left); above: at Port Adelaide CIB; left: graduation day in 1971 (back row third from left.

“He did a biopsy virtually straight away and then told me: ‘This isn’t good. I’ll send you to an oncologist.’ ”

NO ONE

would blame terminal cancer sufferer Seamus Flynn (pictured above) if he opted for seclusion and left others to deal with their own problems. He has to cope with his ever-weakening body, walk with a frame, and sleep in a hospital bed set up in his own living room. On some bad days, when his prostate cancer is at its most aggressive, the 65-year-old ends up back in hospital. His is the ultimate burden. But, far from shunning anyone, this former Port Adelaide and Special Crime Squad detective is determined to reach out – to cops. He wants them to learn from his misfortune; he wants to turn them into men who make their prostate health an absolute priority. And the way he figured was best to do that was simply to tell his story. “I just thought of the Police Journal,” he says. “It’s a great forum for us (serving and retired police) to get to people.

By Brett Williams

“Now if I get one person to go and start getting (his prostate) checked, we’re in front. Obviously I won’t be here, but if you get people to start to think about it… “It’s critical that we do something about it and not become complacent. We can improve (our understanding of prostate cancer) by becoming more aware of what the medical fraternity’s telling us. “Just in my small circle, the number of blokes who have had it, or died from it, is unbelievable. It’s almost like an epidemic, and you think: ‘It can’t be right!’ But it is. It really is.” Flynn was never himself complacent about his prostate health, or his health in general. He had undergone triple bypass surgery in 2000 and suffered post-traumatic stress disorder during his police service. With that history of ill health, Flynn wisely underwent biannual medical check-ups. Naturally, his hear t and cholesterol levels came in for scrutiny, as did his PSA (prostate-specific antigen) level every 12 months. His blood samples always indicated that his PSA level was within the normal range, and he had none of the symptoms of prostate cancer. “Except,” he says, “one morning (in 2015) I found some blood in my urine, so I booked in to see the GP.” After that consultation, and a full blood test, Flynn got a phone call from the GP’s surgery. “You’ve got to get in here real quick!” was the message. Says Flynn: “The PSA was really high, too high, and I got referred to a urologist. He did a biopsy virtually straight away and then told me: ‘This isn’t good. I’ll send you to an oncologist.’ ” The urologist rightly suspected that Flynn had fallen victim to advanced prostate cancer, which is incurable. Flynn wound up on Firmagon, a drug designed to reduce the level of testosterone (male hormone), which promotes the growth of prostate tumours. He took the medication by way of injections in his abdomen and, for four months, it worked well. After that, however, Flynn came to feel pain in the back of his leg and so consulted his oncologist. The reality was that the cancer had spread to his pelvis. So, in the last days of December 2015, Flynn began a course of chemotherapy.

“It worked for a little while,” he says, “but (the cancer) was just too far advanced. Whenever I get the pain now, they take me in and give me a blast of radiotherapy. It seems that I respond better to radiotherapy than I do the chemo. “But the last chemo they gave me made me anaemic so I had to have a few blood transfusions in that time. Just after the last blood transfusion, the oncologist said to me: ‘Look, I don’t think we can do much more.’ “It was surreal. I thought: ‘Oh, shit, there’s your number.’ You don’t wish to hear those words but I’d had a fair idea of what was going on.” Flynn, a father of two and grandfather of two, asked how much time he might have left. His oncologist thought it unwise to speculate. “He said that was because some people will fall over in a bundle and (die), while other people will stretch it out,” Flynn recalls. “They (medicos) also ask you the question: ‘If worse comes to worst, do you want to be resuscitated?’ Nuh! (I don’t.)”

FEBRUARY 2017 POLICE JOURNAL

Flynn kept up the radiotherapy until last month, when he noticed that he was “starting to lose all power” in his lower body. In whatever time remains for him, he does not intend to just “roll over”. He aims to “enjoy my time with family and friends”. And those friends have shown their high regard for Flynn by the numbers in which they have rallied around their mate. Cops he used to work with and old schoolmates have “inundated” him with visits and phone calls. “They just come out of the woodwork,” he says. “I had a phone call from a bloke who I think was the last bloke I worked with in uniform and Task Force before I went to the CIB. I haven’t seen him since then, and it was like yesterday. And that’s over 40 years ago.” Another old copper who turned up to visit was one with whom Flynn had begun his career at the police academy. “The camaraderie in those days got you through,” Flynn reflects.

Kind regards Graham Puckridge

Uncovering the ultimate negligence I am a former member of SAPOL and the Police Association, having retired in 2012. I have just read Uncovering the ultimate negligence by Brett Williams (Police Journal, February 2017). It was a truly magnificent article that almost reduced me to tears. An outstanding effort.

UNCOVERING THE ULTIMATE NEGLIGENCE

The compelling last words of a truckie killed in a crash came to light on a dash cam police found after the fatality. The commentary – and vision – was highly emotive but it helped win a manslaughter conviction. By Brett Williams

air-pressure alarm sounds! The brakes fail! The desperate truckie twice pumps the brake pedal, all the way to the floor of the 14-tonne Mitsubishi tautliner, but there’s no resistance! Ahead of him, he can see traffic banked up in the southbound lanes of Main South Road, Happy Valley. Lane closures and speed restrictions have caused the congestion. And Robert Brimson, 45, knows he cannot stop the truck, which is loaded with timber doors. Now frantic, on that March morning in 2014, he bellows: “Oh, f--king brakes! Oh, f--k off: no f--king brakes!” Unable to stop, or even slow the truck down, he veers to the left, onto the eastern shoulder of Main South Road. That evasive action prevents him from crashing into stationary vehicles in which drivers and passengers are waiting for the congested traffic to clear. Brimson spares those late-morning travellers fatal injuries and even death but gains no advantage

FEBRUARY 2017 POLICE JOURNAL

for himself. He yells: “Where am I gunna f--king go!” and repeatedly pumps the brake, before finally exclaiming: “I’ve got nowhere to f--king go!” Careering along the eastern shoulder of the road, the out-of-control tautliner takes out an information sign and, after that, a speed restriction sign. Then it hits, and ends up caught on, a steel guard rail but continues rocketing forward like a train on a railway line. Brimson now cannot stop, slow or even steer the truck – and it is heading straight for a gantry pole. The innocent, hard-working husband, father and grandfather is about to die. There is simply nothing he can do to save himself as the tautliner slams into the pole. The driver’s side of the cabin takes the bulk of the impact, and the crush damage is too extensive for Brimson to survive.

Bruce Faehrmann Snr Sgt 1C (ret) Continued page 32

Police Journal

Q Q&A

Have the changes to police-station opening hours been successful? A SERGEANT AMY MARETT

SERGEANT DEBBIE LUETKENS

Port Adelaide Police Station

Elizabeth Crime Prevention

SENIOR CONSTABLE 1C MEREDITH HUMPHRIES Communications Centre

No. The increase in workload since the changing of police-station hours and the closure of the Parks police station has made conditions overwhelming. We now regularly have members of the public lined up out the door, waiting to be served. In some cases they wait more than an hour to report their incidents due to staff being tied up dealing with other enquiries. We have members of the public travelling past other police stations to attend ours because their local station is now only open 9-to-5, Monday-toFriday, when the majority of people are working. We also have people attending the station to make reports because their matters don’t fit the criteria to be reported by phone. And the amount of incidents that require in-person reporting to police stations has not changed. We also have several members of the public say they don’t even know when their nearest police station is open so they just head directly to a 24-hour station.

We have members of the public travelling past other police stations to attend ours because their local station is now only open 9-to-5, Mondayto-Friday, when the majority of people are working.

From the changes I’ve seen, police stations are understaffed. Staff are working longer hours and, on many occasions, with no meal break. Station staff prioritize dealing with members of the public who attend the station, which means that the phone often goes unanswered. An automated phone message, such as: “For police assistance ring 131 444 and for an emergency ring 000,” would greatly assist to reduce the impact on all police stations and improve customer service. Members of the public are often turned away as their report can’t be completed prior to the station closing. Members of the public attend stations on weekends, discover that they’re closed, and return on Mondays. They’re attending the 24/7 stations from outside the LSAs, increasing the workloads for staff. The changes do not appear to be successful for either police officers or service delivery to the community.

No. At COMCEN we get people ringing 000 (or 131 444) because they’re at a police station and it’s not open. This has included someone who attended a station to report a domestic violence incident and someone else who attended to sign in for bail. As call-takers, we often have people ringing because they’re being followed by another vehicle. It’s difficult to send a patrol to a vehicle on the move so it’s often suggested that they make their way to the closest police station. If the station is closed, they’re not being sent to a safe place and that makes our job more difficult to manage. I actually had to attend a station during business hours to make a police report while off-duty because patrols were too busy to attend the job that I previously rang in. I’m sure members of the public working normal business hours would find it difficult to attend a police station to report matters. Some incidents might end up unreported.

April 2017

Willingly into the blaze From page 21

And, by then, local residents had started to gather around the scene. With the increasingly powerful fire set to consume the driver, Geraghty hurriedly took out his Leatherman multi-tool and cut his (the driver’s) seatbelt in two places. So, now, the two cops had created their very last opportunity to save the life of the driver. They moved in to get their strongest possible grips on him. “We tried to pull him out but he was a really big guy and he was just so stuck in there,” Waterson says. “I remember grabbing him around the neck and one shoulder and Dennis grabbing the other shoulder. “We were just trying to wrench him out as hard as we could, and the whole time he was screaming: ‘Get me out!’ He was saying that it was burning and that he was in a lot of pain.” But, with their combined strength, the officers finally pulled the driver free from the wreckage and onto the ground. There, they tumbled over exhausted and relieved – but none of the three was yet safe. With the risk of explosion, it was vital to get some distance between themselves and the car. So Geraghty and Waterson, along with the security guard and another bystander, went about dragging the rescued driver to a distant corner of the intersection. And, as they heaved him across the roundabout, repeatedly tumbling over shrubs, they saw just how close the whole incident had come to a fatality.

“I looked down and saw this huge rip in my pants and a hole in my knee.” “It was like one of those cinema moments,” Waterson says. “We pulled him out and the whole thing (the car) just went up in flames all at once. We just collapsed on the ground.” Waterson could see the badly burnt skin of the driver’s leg and called on bystanders and residents to bring water to pour on it. She soon wound up with a “wonderful community chain of buckets and hoses happening”. And, in another move to spare the driver some pain, Waterson pulled an iPhone out of his trouser pocket. “I thought it was probably like a hot stone cooking (against his leg),” she says. “So I just made a snap decision and ripped it out.” Soon on the scene were back-up patrols along with firefighters and paramedics, who treated the driver and took him to hospital. Geraghty went along in the ambulance with them while Waterson picked up the driver’s partner and her two children. She figured it was important to get her to the hospital, particularly if the injuries to the driver were life-threatening. But, as Waterson undertook the journey, she found that she was herself injured. “I was driving along and thought: ‘My knee feels really cold and itchy.’ ” she recalls. “I looked down and saw this huge rip in my pants and a hole in my knee.”

“It was like one of those cinema moments. We pulled him out and the whole thing (the car) just went up in flames all at once.” 26

Police Journal

Waterson had to have that hole sutured and receive a tetanus shot at the Royal Adelaide Hospital. Her wound, which quickly became infected, kept her away from work for a week. The injuries to the driver proved not to be life-threatening. But Waterson and Geraghty still have no doubt that, without rescuing, he would have died in the inferno. And for undertaking that rescue, the two courageous coppers are to receive commendations. “It’s nice to have a really big honour,” Waterson says. “It feels like a once-ina-career kind of thing. Six years ago, before I joined SAPOL, I wouldn’t have thought that this would happen.” Both Waterson and Geraghty – now based at Coober Pedy and Nuriootpa respectively – apportion credit to their teammates, who responded in only minutes to back them up. “I’d only been in SAPOL a short time,” Geraghty says, “but it was so good to hit that (emergency) button when we needed some help and everyone responded. It was a teamwork thing. It was really the whole team that sorted it out.” PJ

Above: The gash Waterson sustained to her knee, before and after it was sutured at hospital.

Bernadette Zimmermann Assistant Secretary, Police Association

Industrial

Summer leave too tightly restricted A

nnual leave allocations across SAPOL have been a constant area of concern to Police Association members. The association wrote to the police commissioner in 2015 in respect of changes to the relevant general order. Of particular concern with the new “12%” policy was the restriction to members applying for leave between late November and late March. This was hardly great news for members. The restriction was to apply during the most popular time of the year, not only for families trying to cover the school holiday period, but for anyone who wanted to take a break during the summer months. The association wrote to SAPOL looking for an explanation. We argued that the new restriction was at odds with members’ leave entitlements under the award and enterprise agreement. We sought clarification on: • SAPOL’s methodology to arrive at the figure of 12% to calculate leave allocations. • The consultation process, given the departure from usual practice. • Other questions concerning the definition of concepts such as “operational police” and “workplace”.

Members should not be asked to take other accrued leave just to conceal the nature of the absence. Manoeuvring around the 12% in this manner has the potential to create larger gaps in staffing during other times of the year.

These terms become significant when attempting to define just how far the policy extends in respect of “workplace” and, indeed, to whom the term “operational police” applies. It is also not an easy task for supervisors who bear the initial responsibility of approving leave requests. SAPOL’s response was that 12% is the average number of police who would be on either annual or police service leave at any one time throughout the year. SAPOL also indicated that LSA/ branch managers have the discretion to approve leave provided that operational obligations are met and that any exceptional or special circumstances are managed on a caseby-case basis. This is the “out” clause that allows managers to approve leave to members over and above the 12% policy. However, the response from SAPOL regarding how it defines “operational police” and “the workplace” was dubious. It indicated that: • “ ‘Operational police’ is defined as reported in the SAPOL Annual Report.” • “ ‘The workplace’ is generally defined as LSA and Branch level.” These definitions are ambiguous and therefore unclear when applied in a practical sense. It is a difficult task for supervisors attempting to establish exactly who they have to take into account when allocating leave. For many members it has been a case of accepting the leftovers – an unsatisfactory result. Many supervisors and other members are confused as to why two or more seemingly separate workplaces within an LSA are measured against each other when trying to determine who gets leave – and when they will get it.

This conundrum is further exacerbated when the bewildered supervisor applies the 12% quota over the top of that, in SAPOL’s “generally defined” LSA and branch. Members have indicated that during the sanctioned period – when the 12% quota of AL and PSL have already been reached (often by workers in completely different workgroups) – they are told that they can only take time off by using other types of leave, such as long-service leave. This way, the ledger does not show annual leave and police service leave to be above 12%. Everyone wins a prize, or so it appears. The oddity is that workers will potentially be taking more leave than necessary during the year – depleting their own stocks of accrued long service, for example – just to keep the “ledger” looking good. Managers need to remember the “out”. Higher quotas can be justified within the LSA when organizational needs are met and exceptional or special circumstances exist. Members should not be asked to take other accrued leave just to conceal the nature of the absence. Manoeuvring around the 12% in this manner has the potential to create larger gaps in staffing during other times of the year. Most managers know their staff and understand their need to take holidays. If the procedures prescribed in the general order for annual leave and police service leave are met, requests for such leave over and above the 12% are worthy of consideration. And there should be no fear in granting and recording it as just that. Members who require assistance with these matters should make swift contact with the association.

April 2017

Because Police Health is a not-for-profit organisation, the benefits come back to us... and we get a lot more out of it.” Simone Beale (N.T.)

We’ve got your back. We know your job is anything but ordinary, which is why we’re anything but an ordinary health fund. We’re not for everyone. We’re only for police and their families. We’re not run for corporate investors or overseas owners.

We’re run by police for police. So we understand exactly what you need and, importantly, what you don’t. To find out more call us on 1800 603 603 or go to policehealth.com.au

Police Health Limited ABN 86 135 221 519, a registered not for profit, restricted access private health insurer.

If you had an ordinary job, all you’d need is an ordinary health fund. But you don’t, and that’s why you have us.

H Health

Dr Rod Pearce

Not quite The Six Million Dollar Man T

he bionic human became a reality in the form of The Six Million Dollar Man – but only on the small screen. In reality replacement joints are less reliable. The real advantage is usually to get some function from joints which have stopped working, or maintain some function with less pain. Replacing the hip joint is considered a routine and successful operation. The femur (thigh bone) is strong and the pelvis has a cup (acetabulum) that holds the joint in place with a strong surrounding set of muscles. Still, a replacement joint can pop out (dislocate), fracture or loosen at the femur, or push through the pelvis. Other problems include the production of particles through friction and wear in the device. Knee replacements can be partial, involving the inside (medial) part, the outside (lateral) part, or the kneecap. Surgery to replace the whole knee joint is known as total knee replacement (TKR). Although knee replacements have become more common they are not problem-free. The nature of the knee makes it vulnerable to injury because the joint needs to be flexible yet carry a lot of weight and pressure. After knee surgery the initial problems relate to healing and the risk

New opportunities are emerging as 3D printers create new choices of materials and shapes.

to the lower leg from the swelling around the knee. The 30-day mortality rate for a TKR is about 1 in 400, or 0.25 per cent. That means that 99.75 per cent of patients survive the treatment. Despite many different ways of fixing a damaged knee, the joint is vulnerable to sideways pressure and further damage. Someone who is overweight might not get much benefit from a knee replacement if he or she cannot mobilize after surgery or if the artificial joint cannot work properly under pressure. Ankle joint replacement remains a challenge. Often joining the moving parts together (fusion) becomes the better option because strength with less pain might be more important than mobility. Strenuous physical activity can lead to early failure of toe-joint replacement. Light activity, such as walking and cycling, can be performed after the initial healing is complete. However, it is difficult to predict how much motion will remain after a toe replacement. Any joint replacement has to take into account: • The person. • His or her medical condition or joint damage or disease. • Which joint is to be replaced. • What sort of movements are expected after the replacement. The shoulder joint is expected to move in almost 360 degrees but does not usually have to carry a lot of weight. To reproduce the flexibility and strength, surgeons have invented a “reverse” replacement. A reverse total shoulder replacement works better for people with tendon and muscle disease because it relies on different muscles to move the arm. In a healthy shoulder, the rotator cuff muscles help position and power the arm through the range of motion. A conventional replacement device also uses the rotator cuff muscles to

function properly. In a patient with rotator cuff shoulder problems, these muscles might no longer work. The reverse total shoulder replacement relies on the deltoid muscle (outside muscles), instead of the rotator cuff (internal muscles), to power and position the arm. Replacement of the elbow joint is much less common than that of the knee and hip but usually results in less pain, improved motion and strength, and better function. Basic tasks such as getting a plate out of a cabinet, cooking dinner, lifting a milk jug, and dressing should be good after replacement. However, expect problems with contact sports and activities with a major risk of falling (horse riding, climbing ladders), as well as heavy lifting. These activities increase the risk of the metal parts loosening or breaking, or the bone breaking. Finger joints can be replaced for patients with arthritis associated with deformity and loss of function. Replacement improves the appearance of the fingers and helps with pain but does not usually achieve full movement. Finger joint replacements are an alternative to fusing a painful joint, but are not as robust in patients who have high demands of their hands. Replacement of other bones of the hand is possible but often leaves restricted movement and chronic pain. Continued page 44 April 2017

Motoring

Jim Barnett

Hyundai Elantra FIRST IMPRESSIONS Standard Hyundai Elantras hit the mark on price, standard equipment, driveability and warranty. SR Turbo offers more equipment and turns up the wick for a few bucks more.

DESIGN AND FUNCTION The sixth-generation Hyundai Elantra comes with additional safety and technology, new looks and more power. After releasing it in early 2016, the big Korean expanded its Elantra range with a hot SR Turbo variant later that year. Entry Elantra (Active six-speed manual) carries a manufacturer’s list price of $21,490 (add $2,300 for six-speed auto). It comes well equipped with 30

Police Journal

auto headlights, trip computer with digital speed readout, cruise control and burglar alarm. A new seven-inch touch screen delivers voice control with Apple CarPlay and reverse camera. Bluetooth connectivity, aux/USB inputs and iPod compatibility also feature. A new grille and headlight assembly feature along with fog lights and LED running lights. All models score alloy wheels and all, except SR Turbo, have a full-size spare in the boot. The revamped dash offers better ergonomics, particularly for the driver. Reach- and rake-adjustable steering, a driver’s seat height adjuster, and steering-wheel function buttons all feature. Auto-only Elite is just $2,700 more than Active auto and, for that, it picks up leather trim, bigger alloys, dual-zone

climate control, Proximity Smart Key with push-button start and auto wipers. Both models feature a new 2.0-litre DOHC multi-valve petrol engine which produces 112kW of power at 6,200rpm. SR Turbo is powered by the same 1.6-litre four-cylinder turbocharged petrol engine found in the Hyundai Veloster three-door coupe. It produces 150kW (power) and 265Nm (torque). In six-speed manual guise it sells for $28,990 while the seven-speed dual-clutch auto variant costs $31,290. SR Turbo picks up: • Larger alloys. • Bigger front disc rotors. • Body kit. • Power sunroof. • Heated front seats. • A suite of additional safety equipment. The dual-clutch auto also has paddle shifters.

Australian input obvious

Model Land Rover Discovery Sport Si4 SE AWD. Price From $59,990. Engine 2.0-litre turbo petrol four (177kW). Transmission AWD, nine-speed paddle-shifter auto. Seats Five or seven (optional). Safety Seven airbags. Economy 8.2L/100km (combined) Towing Up to 2,500kg (braked). Warranty Three years/100,000km, roadside assistance.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS A sharp-looking AWD SUV, Land Rover Discovery Sport is compact and competent. Roomier than expected, and with its luxury European branding, it comes at a reasonable price.

DESIGN AND FUNCTION Discovery Sport has a body design similar to that of its larger Discovery sibling and is available in three speclevels (SE, HSE and HSE Luxury). Pricing ranges between $56,355 and $70,690 with optional third-row seats adding $2,050. TD4 (turbo-diesel) powerplants hooked up to nine-speed automatic transmissions are standard fare but there is one petrol variant (Si4 SE). Si4 SE features a 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder petrol engine which outputs 177kW (power) and 340Nm (torque). Priced from $59,990, it also has a nine-speed paddle-shifter auto.

DRIVING Roomy and comfortable, Elantra has plenty of space for four adults. Active auto proved livelier than expected for a naturally-aspirated 2.0-litre sedan. Around town it is smooth and quiet and the engine is rarely heard. Push the foot down and the engine freely spins to redline but increases its noise level. The auto delivers smooth shifting and makes the most of the willing engine. Australian input is obvious in the suspension tune: comfortable ride characteristics with agility in corners. SR Turbo manual is a smooth, easy car to drive with a nice gearbox and light clutch. Its performance can be exhilarating and it is well fitted out for the price.

Si4 SE features leather-trimmed seats with eight-way power adjustment up front. The leather-bound reachand rake-adjustable steering wheel has buttons for cruise control (with speed limiter), audio and phone functions. Central in the gauge layout is a TFT screen with digital speed readout, trip computer and a range of other information. An eight-inch colour touch screen featuring sat-nav, reverse camera (with gridlines) and audio functions sits in the centre of the dash. Three 12-volt, four five-volt, USB and aux sockets are conveniently spread around the cabin. Rear 60/40 seats can be dropped forward by a one-touch electric switch inside the cargo bay. Cargo space varies from 194 litres (seven-seat option with all seats in use) up to 1,698 litres. A full-size alloy spare wheel sits under the floor. Standard safety includes: • Seven airbags. • Hill-descent control. • Rear parking sensors. • Emergency braking. • Lane departure warning.

More capable than many

Land Rover Discovery Sport

DRIVING Discovery Sport’s roomy interior is smart, comfortable and bigger than it appears from outside. All doors, including the power tailgate, can be unlocked without touching the smart key. Push-button start, a retractable gear-selector knob and auto on/off electric parking brake also feature. The spirited Si4 turbo petrol is a relatively powerful engine. Acceleration is smooth and effortless and, even at high revs, the engine remains quiet. It is well matched to the nine-speed auto, which offers smooth shift qualities. Suspension and steering are definitely biased toward agility with the test car’s optional 19-inch low-profile Continental tyres providing some harshness on rough surfaces. Discovery Sport’s Terrain Response system makes it more capable than many AWD SUVs. Drivers can select between Normal, Grass, Gravel, Snow, Mud & Ruts and Sand drive modes. These alter engine, differential and chassis settings to maintain traction. As well, there’s 212mm of ground clearance and a wading depth of 600mm.

Model Hyundai Elantra: Active, Elite, SR Turbo. Engine 2.0-litre (112kW) or 1.6 turbo (150kW). Transmission Six-speed manual and auto or seven-speed dual clutch. Fuel economy 7.2 – 7.7 litres/100km. Price $21,490 – $31,290. Boot space 458 litres. Warranty Five years, unlimited kilometre.

April 2017

L Letters From page 22

Unique initiative The Equal Opportunity Commission has developed a unique initiative for current and former SAPOL employees who have worked at SAPOL over the last 10 years and experienced sex discrimination, sexual harassment and/or predatory behaviour. This initiative, called the Restorative Engagement Program, offers a way for you to safely and confidentially have your story of the harm caused heard and acknowledged by a specially trained member of SAPOL’s executive leadership team through a process of restorative mediation. The programme was a recommendation outlined in the report by the Equal Opportunity Commission of its Independent Review into Sex Discrimination, Sexual Harassment and Predatory Behaviour in SAPOL. A restorative engagement programme was successfully implemented by the Australian Defence Force after a similar review and the effects were enduring and profound. One person who went through the ADF programme said: “(The outcome from) my restorative engagement … was something that I could never have envisaged being able to achieve. “It has been an integral part of my journey. I feel at peace knowing the military has heard my story.” Some important things about the Equal Opportunity Commission’s Restorative Engagement Program are that: • This is a complainant-centric service; the overriding principle is that “no further harm be done”. • Alleged perpetrators will have no involvement in the restorative engagement.

A S S O CI A

I CE

T H AU S T R

• Your participation is voluntary and consent can be withdrawn at any time. • There are special procedures in place so your stories can be heard in the strictest confidence. • Restorative engagement is not a substitute for existing complaint mechanisms and participation will not prevent you from using these if you choose to. If you feel the programme may be of value to you then please contact my office. I have gathered a team of highly experienced mediators who are available to answer your questions and guide you through this process. They will provide you with more detailed information about the criteria that must be met for participation, outline the process step-by-step and send you information explaining your options. We have a dedicated phone line (8226 0350) for this programme. I am heartened to be able to offer this opportunity for a potentially powerful form of healing to SAPOL employees who have suffered harm as a result of sex discrimination and/or sexual harassment. I am also pleased that SAPOL leaders will be able to gain a greater level of insight into the impacts such unlawful behaviour has on people. I believe this will support their efforts to make SAPOL a more equitable and safe organization in which to work. Yours faithfully Dr Niki Vincent Commissioner for Equal Opportunity (SA) www.eoc.sa.gov.au

Change of Address The Police Association of South Australia needs your change-of-address details. If you have moved, in either the recent or distant past, please let the association know your new address. Its office does not receive notification of changed addresses by any other means.

Police Journal

The association will need your new address, full name, ID number, telephone numbers (home, work and/or mobile). Members can e-mail these details to the association on pasa@pasa.asn.au or send them by letter through dispatch (168).

B Banking

Paul Modra, Executive Manager – Member Value and Distribution, Police Credit Union

You might not know everything about SA W

e consider ourselves pretty lucky to call South Australia home. With our head office and Adelaide branch in Carrington St, we’re near the hustle and bustle of Victoria Square and just a hop, skip and jump away from the famous Adelaide Central Market. We get a taste of it all on a daily basis. The markets and iconic Victoria Square are just two examples of the great things our eclectic state has to offer, from its stunning coastlines to the rolling hills and everything in between, there really is something for everyone. But there are at least 13 things you might not have known about South Australia. 1. At the end of 2016, there were 706 wine producers around South Australia. In fact, the South Australian wine industry is responsible for more than half of Australia’s total wine production. 2. South Australia’s Police Club is the only one of its type in Australia. And we happen to be right next door. It’s also a great spot for a Friday night drink. And something else about the club – it actually housed the first ATM installed in SA by us, Police Credit Union, back in 1978. 3. Docked in Port Adelaide’s inner harbour is one of the only two surviving composite clipper ships in the world. The clipper ship City of Adelaide made 23 return voyages from England to South Australia after

being constructed in 1864 to carry passengers. With an estimated 250,000 Australians able to trace their ancestry to the ship, it is a special piece of our history right in our own backyard. As proud sponsors of this ship we are excited to see the progress that has been made in preserving and utilizing its history. You can visit the ship, get a guided tour and even hire the ship for an event. 4. Robern Menz, the iconic South Australian company that produces those delicious balls of chocolate and fruity goodness, manufactures enough chocolate in a year to cover the entire MCG. 5. Adelaide is a medical hub, with research and breakthroughs coming out of our hospitals and labs and being taken to the world. Although it was actually in a lab in Oxford, England, a South Aussie played a part in the development of penicillin being used to treat infections in humans in the 1940s. More recently, researchers at SAMRHI have discovered a new test that will revolutionize the treatment for prostate cancer with the development of a special compound that can locate where prostate cancer has spread. 6. The newly built and almost complete Royal Adelaide Hospital is Australia’s most advanced hospital and will feature more than 100 gardens, terraces and courtyards

Robern Menz … manufactures enough chocolate in a year to cover the entire MCG.

Top: The Adelaide Credit Union Christmas Pageant. Image: amophoto_au / Shutterstock.com; above: The new Royal Adelaide Hospital and SAMRHI building. Image: Sean Heatley / Shutterstock.com.

allowing natural light into all rooms. The design is all about creating a healing environment. 7. Adelaide’s famous Credit Union Christmas Pageant, of which we are a very proud sponsor, will be turning 85 this year. It takes more than 240 boxes of tissues and 70 jars of make-up remover to take off all the character make-up at the end of the show. 8. The top growth suburb in Adelaide for under $550,000, according to CoreLogic RP Data, is Gulfview Heights. CoreLogic is a fantastic service that Police Credit Union offers, allowing its members to research suburb growth and comprehensive reports on house prices in a particular postcode. We are always happy to help you find the property that is right for you, plus we have some great home loan rates that could help you get that dream home. 9. Did you know that Mount Woodroffe, located in the Musgrave Ranges, is South Australia’s highest peak? It stands 1,435 metres high. Continued page 44 April 2017

Free Legal Service for Police Association Members, Their Families & Retired Members.

To arrange a preliminary in-person or phone appointment contact PASA on (08) 8212 3055

Leading Adelaide law firm, Tindall Gask Bentley is the preferred legal service provider of the Police Association, offering 30 minutes of free initial advice and a 10% fee discount.

INJURY COMPENSATION • Motor accident injury compensation

• Public liability

• Workers compensation

• Superannuation claims (TPD) Gary Allison

Richard Yates

Wendy Barry

Dina Paspaliaris

Giles Kahl

Michael Arras

Rosemary Caruso

FAMILY & DIVORCE Matrimonial, De Facto & Same Sex Relationships • Children’s Issues

• Property Settlements

• Child Support matters

• “Pre Nuptial” style Agreements

BUSINESS & PROPERTY • General business advice

• Business transactions

• Real estate & property advice

• Commercial disputes & dispute resolution

WILLS & ESTATES • Wills & Testamentary Trusts

• Advice to executors of deceased estates

• Enduring Powers of Attorney

• Obtaining Grants of Probate

• Advance Care Directive

• Estate disputes

Adelaide • Reynella • Salisbury • Mt Barker • Murray Bridge Gawler • Pt Lincoln • Whyalla • Perth (WA) • Darwin (NT) 34

Police Journal

tgb.com.au • (08) 8212 1077

L Legal

Samuel Joyce, Senior Associate, Tindall Gask Bentley Lawyers

Police Disciplinary Tribunal not your foe T

he first words out of my clients’ mouths when they come to see me after being formally charged with a breach of discipline are almost universally expressions of fear, tinged with embarrassment, at being hauled before the Police Disciplinary Tribunal (PDT). My inevitable response, which might be surprising, is that the PDT is not to be feared. Why? Police discipline is unique in that police investigate and prosecute themselves. But, contrary to the popular perception that those who are investigated by their peers get an easy ride, any member who emerges from the PDT system will agree their accusers are, in fact, harder on them.

What is the PDT? The PDT is a tribunal constituted of a magistrate. When the commissioner alleges a member has committed one of the offences against discipline set out in the Code of Conduct in Part V of the Police Regulations 2014, he lays a charge in the PDT making that allegation, and provides particulars. The particulars of a charge can include conduct that would otherwise be criminal conduct (an assault). The PDT exists solely for the purpose of determining whether or not the charge is proved. If the charge is proved (either after trial or on a plea of guilty

to the breach of discipline), the magistrate remits the member to the commissioner to impose a sanction. The PDT functions and looks just like the Magistrates Court. It also provides most of the safeguards of a court. You are entitled by statute to: • A reasonable notice of the time and place at which the proceedings are to be heard. • Disclosure of the evidence to be led against you. • A reasonable opportunity to call or give evidence. • Examine or cross-examine witnesses on oath. • Make submissions. • Be represented by a lawyer. • Issue a summons for the attendance of any person or the production of documents. • Reasons for the tribunal’s decision. The rules of evidence apply and, significantly, the proceedings of the tribunal are heard in private so the media cannot report on what occurs. These protections are significant.

Why there’s no need to fear the PDT South Australia is the last state to retain a fully independent tribunal of fact in police discipline matters. That is so because SAPOL has never been subject to perlustration of the kind to which the Queensland, NSW, Victorian and

The PDT functions and looks just like the Magistrates Court. It also provides most of the safeguards of a court.

Western Australian services succumbed under royal commissioners Beach, Fitzgerald, Wood and Kennedy respectively in the last quarter of the 20th century. Those commissions of inquiry were each highly critical of police disciplinary systems similar to the PDT. Kennedy QC looked to Wood, and Fitzgerald before him, and was scathing of what he called the “major obstacle” of “a formal process of charges and hearings, which usually involve legal representation … and often a hearing occupying a number of days, which may be followed by an appeal”. He declared that such a system is “the very antithesis of the system of modern management practices” and agitated for an informal, inquisitorial and flexible “managerial” approach. With the radical shift to a starchamber-like approach in other states, interstate members turned increasingly to the courts for protection. The result is the development of a unique body of law in police discipline cases that demarks the extent to which the, previously thought cardinal, rules of procedural fairness apply to police discipline. The law in that regard remains underdeveloped and, in most jurisdictions, there are serious questions about the extent to which your interstate colleagues are entitled to the protection of matters which you can take for granted, including disclosure of evidence against you and the right to test it, as well as the right to secrecy so that your reputation is protected in the event the allegations are not proven.

Continued page 47 April 2017

E Entertainment

Justice Denied Bill Hosking QC with John Suter Linton Harlequin, RRP $32.99

In Justice Denied, one of Australia’s top trial lawyers reveals the truth about our legal system and the all-too-human characters who pursue justice within its imperfect confines. Bill Hosking was involved in some of Australia’s most prominent and sensational court cases and met his fair share colourful characters. They included disgraced cop Roger Rogerson, underworld figure Jimmy Driscoll, and bank robber and conman Carl Synnerdahl. Justice Denied is a chronicle of frailty that beings with a gangland execution and ends with one of the worst crimes in Australian history. Hosking shares the real stories behind those cases. But this is much more than an insider’s account of high-profile trials. Innocent people are sometimes wrongly convicted while the guilty walk free. But why? Here, Hosking shares candid, expert insights into the limitations of the Australian legal system and the unavoidably flawed people – Hosking included – working in it.

Win a book, DVD or in-season movie pass! For your chance to win one of the books, a copy of the DVD Ice Wars or an in-season pass to one of the films (courtesy of Palace Nova Eastend Cinemas) featured in this issue, send your name, location, phone number and despatch code, along with the book and/or film of your choice to giveaways@pj.asn.au

Police Journal

Rattle

Fiona Cummins Macmillan, RRP $29.99

A psychopath more frightening than Hannibal Lecter. He has planned well. He leads two lives. In one he's just like anyone else. But, in the other, he is the caretaker of his family’s macabre museum. Now the time has come to add to his collection. He is ready to feed his obsession, and he is on the hunt. Jakey Frith and Clara Foyle have something in common. They have what he needs. What begins is a terrifying cat-and-mouse game between the sinister collector, Frith’s father and Etta Fitzroy, a troubled detective investigating a spate of abductions. Set in London’s Blackheath, Rattle explores the seam of darkness that runs through us all, the struggle between light and shadow, redemption and revenge. It is a glimpse into the mind of a sinister psychopath. And it’s a story about not giving up hope when it seems that all hope is already lost.

Prussian Blue

Philip Kerr Hachette Australia, RRP $32.99

It’s 1956 and Bernie Gunther is on the run. Ordered by Eich Mielke, deputy head of the East German Stasi, to murder Gunther’s former lover by thallium poisoning, he finds his conscience is stronger than his desire not to be murdered in turn. Now he must stay one step ahead of Mielke’s retribution. The man Mielke has sent to hunt him is an ex-Kripo colleague and, as Gunther pushes toward Germany, he recalls their last case together. It was 1939 when he was summoned by Reinhard Heydrick to the Berghof: Hitler’s mountain home in Obersalzberg. A low-level German bureaucrat had been murdered, and the Reichstag deputy, Martin Bormann, in charge of overseeing renovations to the Berghof, wanted the case solved quickly.

The Liar

Steve Cavanagh Hachette Australia, RRP $29.99

The Liar is an Eddie Flynn legal thriller. Once a con-artist and now a hot-shot suit, New York lawyer Eddie Flynn has got the gift of the gab and nerves of steel – and he’ll do whatever it takes to protect his family. In this case: A missing child When wealthy businessman Leonard Howell’s daughter is kidnapped, the police jump on it straight away. But Howell knows this won’t be straightforward – he needs someone willing to break the rules. A criminal lawyer Once a con-artist, now a hot-shot lawyer, Eddie Flynn’s learnt that fast talk and sleight of hand are just as important in the courtroom as they are on the street. Knowing what it’s like to lose a daughter, he’ll stop at nothing to save Howell’s.

If the Fuhrer were ever to find out that his own house had been the scene of a recent murder, the consequences wouldn’t bear thinking about.

April 2017

E Entertainment

Tattletale

Sarah J Naughton Hachette Australia, RRP $29.99

The perfect brother. The perfect fiancé. The perfect revenge. One day changes Jody’s life forever. She has shut herself down, haunted by her memories and unable to trust anyone. But then she meets Abe, the perfect stranger next door, and suddenly life seems full of possibilities and hope. One day changes Mags’ life forever. After years of estrangement from her family, she receives a shocking phone call. Her brother, Abe, is in hospital and no one knows what happened to him. She meets his fiancée, Jody, and gradually pieces together the ruins of the life she left behind. But the pieces don’t quite seem to fit.

The Fourteenth Letter

Claire Evans Hachette Australia, RRP $29.99

One balmy June evening in 1881, Phoebe Stanbury stands before the guests at her engagement party. This is her moment, when she will join the renowned Raycraft family and ascend to polite society. As she takes her fiancé’s hand, a stranger brandishing a knife steps forward and ends the poor girl’s life. Amid the tumult, he turns to her aristocratic groom and mouths: “I promised I would save you.” The following morning, just a few miles away, timid young legal clerk William Lamb meets a reclusive client, whom he was never meant to meet. He finds the old man terrified and in desperate need of aid. Lamb must keep safe a small casket of yellowing papers, and deliver an enigmatic message: The Finder knows.

Police Journal

Ice Wars

DVD

Running time 225 mins Episodes 4, Discs 2 RRP $19.95

Australia has a drug problem. Over the last decade, crystal methamphetamine (street name: ice) has become the nation’s most popular illicit substance, devastating the communities that fall victim to its users and manufacturers and challenging the health workers and police officers tasked with fighting the epidemic. With unprecedented access to NSW police operations, medical first responders, community leaders and struggling families, this documentary series takes us to the front lines of Australia’s war on ice – revealing the staggering scale of the problem and exploring the destructive fallout it leaves behind. From meth-lab busts to suburban decontamination efforts, Ice Wars follows the brave men and women who are fighting back against Australia’s most dangerous addiction.

Wonder Woman

Viceroy’s House

An Amazonian princess leaves her island home to explore the world and, in doing so, becomes one of the world’s greatest heroes.

In 1947, Lord Mountbatten assumes the post of last viceroy, charged with handing India back to its people.

Season commences June 1

Gal Gadot stars as Wonder Woman in this original story, adapted from the long-running DC Comic series. Wonder Woman also stars Robin Wright and Chris Pine.

Season commences May 25

He lives upstairs at the house which was the home of British rulers, while 500 Hindu, Muslim and Sikh servants lived downstairs. Directed by Gurinder Chadha, Viceroy’s House stars Gillian Anderson, Michael Gambon and Hugh Bonneville.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 Season commences April 27

Alien: Covenant

Season commences May 18

Bound for a remote planet on the far side of the galaxy, the crew of the colony ship Covenant discovers what it thinks is an uncharted paradise. But it is actually a dark, dangerous world, whose sole inhabitant is the synthetic David, survivor of the doomed Prometheus expedition. Directed by Ridley Scott, Alien: Covenant stars Michael Fassbender, Katherine Waterston and James Franco.

Set to the backdrop of Awesome Mixtape 2, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 continues the adventures of the team as it unravels the mystery of Peter Quill’s true parentage. Directed by James Gunn, the cast includes Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Bradley Cooper, Vin Diesel, Michael Rooker, Karen Gillan, Pom Klementieff, Elizabeth Debicki, Chris Sullivan, Sean Gunn, Tommy Flanagan, Laura Haddock and Kurt Russell.

April 2017

WINESTATE MAGAZINE WINESTATE MAGAZINE WINESTATEMEMBER MAGAZINE EVENTS 2017 MEMBER TEMEMBER MAGAZINE EVENTS 2017 EVENTS 2017

JOIN US TODAY! USMember TODAY! becomingJOIN a Winestate you will receive one complimentary JOIN US TODAY!By By becoming a Winestate Member you will receive one complimentary ticket to all of our events listed below upon request!*

EVENTS 2017

By becoming a Winestate Member you will receive complimentary ticket to allone of our events listed below upon request!* ticket to all of our events listed below upon request!* Y! SEPTEMBER 2016

e Member youADELAIDE will receive one ‘Wine complimentary - Winestate of the Year 2016’ SEPTEMBER 2016 6 APRIL 2017 Subscribers Tasting isted below upon request!* ADELAIDE - Winestate ‘Wine of the Year 2016’

APRIL 2017

WINESTATE MAGAZINE

ADELAIDE - Cabernet & Bordeaux APRIL 2017 tasting Friday 7th April 2017ADELAIDE - National Wine Centre Adelaide - Cabernet & Bordeaux tasting ate ‘Wine of the Year 2016’ ADELAIDE - Cabernet & Bordeaux tasting (Tickets available early 2017) 2 September 2016 - National Wine Centre Adelaide 6pm – 8.30pm Subscribers Tasting Friday 7th April 2017 - National Wine Centre Adelaide bers Tasting 7th April - National Wine Centre Adelaide (Tickets available June 2016) (Tickets available early 2017) 2 September 2016 Friday - National Wine2017 Centre Adelaide 6pm – 8.30pm APRIL 2017 APRIL 2017 (Tickets available early 2017) National Wine Centre Adelaide 6pm –(Tickets 8.30pmavailable June 2016) Italy - Wines of Australia Vinitaly ADELAIDE - Cabernet APRIL- 2017 2016) NOVEMBER 2016 & Bordeaux tasting APRIL 2017 9 -12 April, 2017 Veronafiere, Verona, (Italy) - Vinitaly Friday 7th April 2017 -- National Centre Adelaide Italy Wines of Australia QUEENSTOWN NZNOVEMBER Wine of Wine the Year Awards Lunch 2016 Italy Wines of Australia Vinitaly Contact sales@winestate.com.au regarding ticketsVerona, (Italy) (Tickets available early 2017) 9 -12 April, 2017 Veronafiere, 68.30pm 18 November 2016QUEENSTOWN - Gantleys of Queenstown NZ - Wine (NZ) of the Year Awards Lunch 9 -12 April, 2017 Veronafiere, Verona, (Italy) (Tickets available early 2017) Contact sales@winestate.com.au regarding tickets Wine of the YearWinestate Awards Lunch Subscribers - NZD$95 p/p, Non-Subscribers - NZD$180 p/p 18 November 2016 - Gantleys of Queenstown (NZ) you will receive one complimentary By becoming a Winestate Member APRIL 2017 Contact sales@winestate.com.au regarding tickets (Tickets available early 2017) Gantleys of Queenstown (NZ) Winestate Subscribers - NZD$95 p/p, Non-Subscribers - NZD$180 p/p MAY 2017 Italy - Wines of Australia - Vinitaly ticket all(Tickets of our events request!* available earlylisted 2017) below upon - NZD$95 p/p, Non-Subscribers - NZD$180 p/p ADELAIDE - Wine of the Year to Awards ADELAIDE - World’s Greatest 9 -12 April, 2017 - Veronafiere, Verona, (Italy) MAY 2017 Shiraz Challenge XII 24 November 2016ADELAIDE - Adelaide Convention Centre only) - Wine of the Year(Trade Awards MAY 2017 Friday 26th May 2017 National Centre Adelaide Contact sales@winestate.com.au regarding tickets ADELAIDE -Wine World’s Greatest Shiraz Challenge XII f the Year Awards 24 November 2016 - Adelaide Convention Centre (Trade only) SEPTEMBER 2016 APRIL 2017 ADELAIDE World’s Greatest Shiraz Challenge XII (Tickets available early 2017) (Tickets available early 2017) Friday 26th May 2017 National Wine Centre Adelaide $180 p/p Convention Adelaide Centre (Trade JANUARY 2017only) ADELAIDE - Winestate ‘Wine of the Friday Year 2016’ ADELAIDE - Cabernet & Bordeaux tasting 26th May 2017 - National Wine Centre Adelaide (Tickets available early 2017) PERTH - Best of the West JANUARY 2017 SEPTEMBER 2017 MAY 2017 Subscribers Tasting (Tickets available early 2017) Friday 7th April 2017 - National Wine Centre Adelaide Friday 20th January,PERTH 2017 - Perth Hyatt Regency Hotel, Riverside Ballroom - Best of theChallenge West ADELAIDE - Winestate Wine of the2017 Year Australia & NZ ADELAIDE - World’s Greatest Shiraz XII (Tickets available early 2017) 2 September 2016 National Wine Centre Adelaide 6pm – 8.30pm SEPTEMBER nly) West (Tickets available late 2016)20th January, 2017 - Perth Hyatt Regency Hotel, Riverside Ballroom Friday SEPTEMBER Friday 1st September 2017 - National Wine Centre Friday May 2017 National Wine Centre Adelaide 2017 (Tickets26th available June- 2016) ADELAIDE - Winestate WineAdelaide of the Year Australia & NZ 017 - Perth Hyatt Regency Hotel, Riverside Ballroom (Tickets available late 2016) APRIL 2017& NZ ADELAIDE - Winestate Wine of the Year Australia (Tickets available mid 2017) (Tickets available early 2017) Friday 1st September 2017 - National Wine Centre Adelaide 2016) Italy - Wines of Australia - Vinitalymid 2017) Friday 1st September* 2017 - National Wine Centre Adelaide NOVEMBER 2016 (Tickets This applies to paid members only, on a first in/firstavailable served basis. Numbers strictly limited. SEPTEMBER 2017 9 -12 April, 2017 Veronafiere, Verona, (Italy) (Tickets available mid 2017) QUEENSTOWN NZ - Wine of the Year Awards Lunch ide Ballroom * This applies to paid members only, on a first in/first served basis. Numbers strictly limited. ADELAIDE Winestate Wine of the Year Australia & NZ Contact sales@winestate.com.au regarding tickets 18 November 2016* -This Gantleys appliesof to Queenstown paid members(NZ) only, on a first in/first served basis. Numbers strictly limited. Friday 1st September 2017 National Wine Centre Adelaide (Tickets available early 2017) Winestate Subscribers - NZD$95 p/p, Non-Subscribers - NZD$180 p/p

MEMBER EVENTS 2017

JOIN US TODAY!

Winestate Members Events FP JA16.indd 1

(Tickets available mid 2017)

Winestate Members Events FP JA16.indd 1

This members only,- on a first served basis. Numbers strictly limited. Wine ofin/first the Year Awards d 1 applies to paid ADELAIDE 40

Police Journal

24 November 2016 - Adelaide Convention Centre (Trade only)

12/05/2016 1:34:24 PM

MAY 2017

12/05/2016 1: 12/05/2016 1:34:24 PM

ADELAIDE - World’s Greatest Shiraz Challenge XII Friday 26th May 2017 - National Wine Centre Adelaide (Tickets available early 2017)

W Wine

2016 Devil’s Corner Pinot Noir 13% alc RRP $24

The Devil’s Corner Pinot Noir is sourced primarily from Brown Brothers Hazards vineyard located on Tasmania’s east coast. In 2016, consistent ripening conditions, free of extremes, produced very high quality Pinot Noir fruit for table wine, concentrated in colour and in character, and able to be harvested at only moderate potential alcohol yet with full flavour and ripeness. The fruit was crushed and fermented on skins in static fermenters using an air maceration technique that allows gentle extraction of colour and tannins without overpowering the wine. It was bottled with a TA (total acidity) of 5.7g/l and a pH of 3.47.

2016 Innocent Bystander Chardonnay 13.5% alc RRP $24

The palate shows fresh pear, lemon over lime, poached apple, white flowers and almond marzipan.

Brown Brothers, Milawa, Victoria brownbrothers.com.au

On the nose: crisp, fresh and dry. Tightly sprung as a new release, unwinding to reveal a citrusy, pithy texture, wrapped around a fresh stone-fruit core. One hundred per cent handpicked fruit. Whole bunch pressed with free run and pressings portions kept separate; indigenous fermentation in new and seasoned French barriques and puncheons. Barrels were lees stirred monthly until winter. No malolactic fermentation, to retain a fresh, natural acidity. French oak barrel fermentation.

NV Brown Brothers Prosecco 11.5% alc RRP $18.90

The grapes for this wine were grown at Brown Brothers Banksdale vineyard in the upper reaches of the King Valley. The fruit was picked later and at a slightly higher baumé than fruit for the Vintage Release Prosecco, to deliver a soft, round, approachable wine. After primary fermentation, the wine was then fermented in a pressure tank to five atmospheres of pressure and bottled to retain the bubbles. The Prosecco was bottled with a pH of 3.2 and an acid level of 5.5g/l. April 2017

THE POLICE CLUB Free WiFi Private function rooms available Free entry into weekly meat tray

POLICE CLUB

Friday, May 5 6pm for a 6:30pm start – 10pm $20.00 per head

OPENING HOURS Mon – Wed 10am till 3.30pm Thurs 10am till 5pm Friday 10am till late HAPPY HOUR 4.30pm till 6.30pm every Friday

Book now

27 Carrington Street, Adelaide (08) 8212 2924 PoliceClub@pasa.asn.au

policeclub.com.au POLICE CLUB PARTNERS

FREE EIGHT-BALL

at the club

Proceeds support the Police Club

Ten rounds of all your favourites, plus • Silent Auction • Lucky Squares • Wine Lucky Dip • Raffle Entry includes a complimentary light dinner. Drinks and refreshments available on the night. Please purchase your tickets in advance www.trybooking.com/137381 or call the Club for further information (No BYO food or drink)

Mother’s Day week

half-price meal and free bubbles!

Bring mum to the Police Club for a half-price meal and complimentary glass of sparkling wine! Lunch: Monday to Friday, May 8 – 12. Dinner: Friday, May 12. Bookings essential

Friday June 16, 5:30pm – 7:30pm

Taste from 100s of Australian and New Zealand new releases

Become a member of the Police Wine Club and receive exclusive annual Winestate benefits and tasting invitations

Cheese & nibbles provided • Complimentary bottle of your choice with dinner on the night • Live entertainment with Dave Freeman on acoustic guitar • Wine raffle & door prizes

Wine Club members: Free Wine Club members’ guests: $15 General cover charge (non-Wine Club members): $25

Phone 8212 3055 for more information or visit www.pasa.asn.au

Health

Banking

From page 29

From page 33

New opportunities are emerging as 3D printers create new choices of materials and shapes. Total jaw (or temporomandibular) joint replacements or implants remain a challenge because of the complexity of the joint and the work expected of the replacement. Before undergoing a joint replacement it is important to talk to the surgeon about realistic outcomes and to think about what you expect after surgery. New technology like the 3D printer will create new opportunities but we still have not been able to produce miracles like Hollywood did with The Six Million Dollar Man.

Benefits of Police Health Private Health Insurance: With Police Health Top Hospital, Platinum Health and Platinum Plus, you will have comprehensive hospital cover with no excess, restrictions and co-payments* covering you for general hospital costs (such as private or shared room accommodation and theatre fees). Our hospital policies cover over 10,000 surgical prostheses (on the Australian Government defined Prostheses List) including screws, plates, intraocular lenses, replacement joints (ankles, knees, elbows, shoulder, hips), cardiac stents, defibrillators and other devices that are surgically implanted as an inpatient. *Subject to waiting periods being served. 44

Police Journal

10. There are lots of awesome things we could say about the Adelaide Oval but did you know that the iconic scoreboard first began service in 1911? It actually has four levels that are connected by stairs, is almost run entirely on the original machinery and can require as many as eight attendants to change the information for T20 matches. 11. The world’s largest working cattle station can be found right here in SA. It is so big that it covers an area slightly larger than Israel. 12. Did you also know that Adelaide is the birthplace of Australia’s lowest rate credit card? The Police Credit Union SoLo credit card has a rate of 6.99% PA and no annual or monthly fees.^ All you need to do is call us on 1 300 131 844, visit a local branch or talk to your personal banker. Our personal banking service is yours exclusively as a Platinum member. 13. If all this isn’t enough proof that South Australia is a great place to live, our stunning state was also recently listed as one of the top 10 must-see regions in the world by Lonely Planet’s Best in Travel. As a proud and local credit union we always aim to do better for our members and the community we live in. We are inspired by the diversity, accomplishments and festive nature of our state and the people who live in it, so we continue to sponsor and support the things that are important to it – like the Credit Union Christmas Pageant. It’s not just about better banking but also about better communities.

^SoLo credit card is provided by Police Credit Union Ltd (PCU) ABN 30 087 651 205 AFSL/Australian Credit Licence 238991. Terms, conditions, fees, charges and lending criteria apply. Full details upon request. Interest rate is correct at 01/11/16 and is subject to change. There are no interest free days. The information provided herein does not take into account your personal needs, objectives and financial circumstances. Please consider your circumstances before deciding if the product is right for you. Guardian Fraud Protection offers a money back guarantee only if members have not directly contributed to the fraud and have notified PCU promptly of the fraud.

Here at Holden we value our PASA Members.

GM Partner Program We appreciate the hard working members of the South Australian Police Association and want to make sure you get the very best value. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s why through our GM Partner Program, weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re offering valued members of the PASA $500 (inc GST)* off the retail price of any vehicle purchase. It's a great way to find a new Holden that suits your budget and your lifestyle. *

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For more information simply call the Holden Fleet Assistance Centre on: 1800 463 325

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The Last Shift

For the full version of The Last Shift, go to PASAweb at www.pasa.asn.au

Chief Superintendent Michael Cornish Steve Arthur Neville M Bone Michael Cornish Ron Hain Graham A Smith Frank Toner Barry Wallwork

Commissioners Support Branch 32 years’ service Last Day: 20.01.17

Constable Steve Arthur

Operations Admin Section 39 years’ service Last Day: 31.12.16 Comments… “During my journey, I have had the pleasure of working alongside and meeting some of the most amazing colleagues and characters. Some provided words of wisdom and guidance and others some very suspect, although tongue-in-cheek, advice. “I hope the job never becomes so sanitized, or economy- or tertiarydriven, that it loses those characters. “I thank the association for all of the industrial gains and personal support over the years. “To someone only a few years into his journey, my nephew, Nathan Ross, I wish all the very best.”

Senior Constable Neville M Bone

Operations Admin Section 43 years’ service Last Day: 11.01.17 Comments… “It has been a mostly enjoyable ‘trip’. I thank the people I have worked with at Region B, Renmark, Port Wakefield and Port Pirie. “I especially thank my LSA association rep, Gavin Mildrum, as well as Tom Scheffler, for the invaluable assistance they gave me on several matters. “My thanks also go out to my wife and daughters. Without a family that followed and supported me there is no way I would have lasted for so long.” 46

Police Journal

Comments… “It has been a great privilege and honour to work in SAPOL with so many great people during my career. “I wish the association and all its members the very best for the future and I will stay in touch.”

Sergeant Frank Toner

HRDB Business Operations 43 years’ service Last Day: 22.02.17 Comments… “I have had the pleasure of working with some amazing people and making lifelong friends, leaving me with great memories. “At the academy I have been privileged to have an influence on so many current and past members. “The academy staff are simply outstanding and it’s only when you work with these members and observe their dedication that you truly appreciate how hard they work. A true group of dedicated professionals. “It has also been my pleasure and privilege to have been an association delegate for the last 14 years. To look at what the association has achieved over this time fills me with pride. “Definitely the hardest thing I found about finishing up was taking off the uniform for the last time. I was surprised how emotional that was. It certainly has been a great ride.”

L Legal From page 35

Sergeant Barry Wallwork Elizabeth Police Station 43 years’ service Last Day: 22.02.17

Comments… “The job has had its many ups and downs but, overall, I wouldn’t change a thing. “I have had the privilege to work with some amazing people over the years and I think that camaraderie is what I will miss the most.”

Senior Constable Ron “Barney” Hain

Elizabeth Traffic 38 years’ service Last Day: 04.03.17 Comments… “I sincerely thank the association for its efforts a number of years ago in relation to police complaints. “My time with SAPOL over the past 38 years has been an experience. I have had the unique experience of working with a great group of professionals.”

Sergeant Graham A Smith Legislative Review Unit 42 years’ service Last Day: 07.04.17

Comments… “I thank the Police Association for its tireless efforts over the years. “I wish all the members of Course 47 a happy transition into retirement. “I thank all the wonderful people I have worked with over the years, particularly Snr Sgt Onishko from Legislative Review Unit who put up with me, especially during the planning of my retirement.”

Experience in other jurisdictions shows, universally, that it is extremely distressing for members to be subject to a star-chamber-like examination before internals, with no ability to test the evidence, and no guarantee internal politics is not at play behind the scenes. That system breeds dissatisfaction and, in many cases, ongoing psychological issues for members subjected to it.

The PDT is under threat The PDT has attracted significant and sustained criticism from some quarters. Happily, however, the Police Complaints and Discipline Act 2016, which rewrote the system of police complaints in this state, has retained the PDT as the arbiter of the facts where “formal” proceedings for breach of discipline are commenced. The Police Association strongly supported the retention of the PDT. However, that act also contains an expanded Part 3 that allows for “management resolution” instead of formal proceedings before the PDT. What matters can be dealt with by “management resolution” instead of formal proceedings are determined by the commissioner, or by the regulations. The purpose of “management resolution” is explicitly to avoid formal disciplinary proceedings (and therefore the fact-finding powers and safeguards of the PDT), by dealing with the matter as a question of educating, and improving the future conduct of, the member concerned. “Management resolution” of matters is to be conducted “as expeditiously as possible and without undue formality”, a phrase lawyers know is a dog whistle to restricting from operation the rules of procedural fairness guaranteed by the PDT. As part of “management resolution”, the commissioner may, among other

things, impose a restriction on the ability of a member to work in a specified position, or to perform specified duties, or remove, or impose conditions on, any accreditation, permit or authority granted by SAPOL to the member. While the commissioner can only do those things for the purposes of providing the member an opportunity to undertake remedial education or training, or to establish that he or she is competent and capable of carrying out specified duties, the line between what is punishment and what is “education” is blurred. We expect to see more reliance on management resolution. We will be vigilant if we suspect it is being used as a device to impose punishment without recourse to the safeguards offered by the PDT.

April 2017

Police Journal

O On Scene

Graduates' Dinner: Course 11/2016

Fenwick Function Centre, March 10

This page, clockwise from bottom right: Kathryn Birnie and James McDade; James Kidd and Victoria Halburd; guests entertained by a speech; James Kidd and Victoria Halburd; Tobi Rieniets, Lucy Edwards and Rowen Nicholas; Christopher Woodward and Alana Coppock; facing page, clockwise from top: all members of the course; Sophie Canavese and Katelyn Newman; Samuel McKinnon and Clare Shuttle; Jessica Dixon and Leah Thompson; Jamie-Lee Fowler and Kyle Nugent; Beckett Wolfe and Carolyn Uphill.

April 2017

O On Scene

Police Journal

Graduation: Course 11/2016 Police Academy, March 15

Top left: Natasha Healey, Lucy Edwards and Stephanie Linder; top right: Patsy and James Kidd; above: graduates toss their caps into the air after dismissal; facing page, clockwise from top left: graduates give the thumbs-up before the parade; Kieran Harrison; graduates during the parade; Katie and Jonathon Newman; Katie Newman embraces a coursemate; Tobi Rieniets; Commissioner Grant Stevens inspects the course; Troy Kennedy; Jake Haberfield delivers a speech on behalf of the course.

April 2017

O On Scene

Graduates' Dinner: Course 12/2016

Fenwick Function Centre, March 24

This page, clockwise from bottom left: James and Sarah Ambrosino; all members of the course; Martin Sharp and Leah Wells; Sarah Chambers and Thomas Carmichael; Alexandra Kraemer and Luke Edwards; Facing page, clockwise from top: guests listen to a speech; Leah and Jess Cutting; Martin, Charlotte and Karen Ailmore; James Jehle and Emma Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Reilly; Craig and Clarissa Chatfield, Bianca Schmidt and Ryan Williams; Adam Powell and Lucy Hatwell; Abbey Flanagan and Grant Bell.

Police Journal

April 2017

Police Journal

O On Scene

Graduation: Course 12/2016 Police Academy, March 29

Facing page, clockwise from bottom left: Laura Dawes delivers a speech on behalf of the course; graduates march onto the parade ground; graduates give the thumbs-up before the parade; Stacey Barton; James Jehle swearing the oath; Sam Venning; Alexandra Kraemer embraces a coursemate; this page, clockwise from bottom left: Grant Bell and Abbey Flanagan; Alyshia Watson, Clarissa Chatfield and Laura Dawes; graduates toss their caps into the air after dismissal; Zach Dutschke and Scott Prime; Police Association vice-president Allan Cannon with Academic Award winner Georgina Vivian.

April 2017

PASA Welcomes Harvey Norman PASA Welcomes HarveyGuide Norman to the Members Buying PASA Welcomes HarveyGuide Norman to the Members Buying PASA Welcomes Harvey Norman to the Welcomes Members Buying Guide PASA Harvey Norman PASA Welcomes Harvey Norman to the Members Buying Guide Harvey Norman Business & Education in partnership with the Police Association to the Members Buying Guide to the Members Buying Guide PASA Welcomes Harvey Norman Harvey Business & Education in partnership with the Police Association of SouthNorman Australia are pleased to offer all our members and their families access of South Australia are pleased toour offer all ourGuide members and their families access Harvey Norman Business & in with the Police Association to discounted products through exclusive online shopping portal. Enjoy to the Members Buying Harvey Norman Business & Education Education in partnership partnership with the Police Association Harvey Norman Business & Education in partnership with the Police Association

to discounted products through exclusive online portal. Enjoy of Australia are to offer all members and their families access easy payment options including FlexiRent, PayPal andshopping 12 months interest free. of South South Australia are pleased pleased toour offer all our our members and their families access Harvey Norman Business &&Education ininpartnership with the Police Association of South Australia are pleased toour offer all our members and their families access Harvey Norman Business Education partnership with the Police Association easy payment options including FlexiRent, PayPal andshopping 12 months interest free. to discounted products through exclusive online portal. Enjoy to discounted products through our exclusive online shopping portal. Enjoy of Australia are toour offer all members and their families access to discounted products through exclusive online shopping portal. Enjoy ofSouth South Australia arepleased pleased offer allour our members their families easy payment options including PayPal and months interest free. easy payment options includingtoFlexiRent, FlexiRent, PayPal and 12 12and months interest access free. Harvey Norman Business & Education in partnership with the Police Association Huge product range. Australia wide delivery. to through online portal. Enjoy easy payment products options including FlexiRent, PayPal andshopping 12 months interest free. todiscounted discounted products throughour ourexclusive exclusive online shopping portal. Enjoy Huge product Australia wide of South Australia arerange. pleased to offer all our members and their families easy payment options including FlexiRent, PayPal and 12 months interest free. easy payment options including FlexiRent, PayPal anddelivery. 12 months interestaccess free. to discounted products throughAustralia our exclusivewide online shopping portal. Enjoy Huge product range. delivery. Huge product range. Australia wide delivery. Huge product range. wide easy payment options includingAustralia FlexiRent, PayPal anddelivery. 12 months interest free.

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Police Journal

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O On Scene

Lisa Curry Health and Wellness Seminar for Police Adelaide Convention Centre, April 4 Top right: Police Association assistant secretary Bernadette Zimmermann introduces Lisa Curry; top far right: Lisa Curry interacts with the audience; right: the packed house

World’s Greatest Shave Police Club, March 17 Top right: PSSB member Kate Burgess; below right: hairdresser Rosa Ventura shaves Kate’s head; top far right: Brevet Sgt Matt Stone; far right centre: Senior Constable Robin Firth shave’s Matt’s head with support from Rosa Ventura; below far right and below centre: Brevet Sgt Dayl Pope

April 2017

Cops' Creatures Rarely does a “troublemaker” at the centre of a job that requires police attention end up the best mate of the responding copper – but it happened. SENIOR CONSTABLE FIRST CLASS LANCE GRANT

(Two Wells police station) and TIBETAN

MASTIFF GEORGE

Police Journal

In February last year I was tasked to a job where a very large dog was reportedly trying to attack people and cars. I responded and found George behind a fence. He growled at me but I managed to get him into my cage car. He ended up in the local pound with a Facebook campaign to reunite him with his owners. While George was still in the pound I bonded with him and volunteered to walk him around Two Wells. I dropped a few hints at home about adopting him but I got an unequivocal “No”. His owners never came forward and he ended up in a rescue home in Victoria. Not one to give up easily, I got my wife to agree to let me adopt him. George is headstrong, severely protective and extremely loving toward his family. He protects his home environment with his life. He has an excellent sense of humour and you can see a real glint in his eye when he wants to play. He steals things and runs around the yard with them but he doesn’t chew them up or damage them.

George is really my best mate. He never gets frustrated with me and never judges me. He’s as loyal as the day is long. Our relationship is unbreakable, special and very loving. Every time I talk about him I’m guilty of saying: “I just love him” and I’m sure he knows I saved him. Fate played her hand in bringing us together. For such a large dog George isn’t expensive to look after. Although he eats raw meat, pasta, rice, vegetables and dog biscuits he doesn’t consume as much as people would expect. It’s around 1kg a day. The Tibetan Mastiff is a very healthy breed and, so far, fingers crossed, there haven’t been any out-of-theordinary health issues with him. Every day since I found him has been an added bonus for both of us. I kept him alive and gave him a new lease on life. I hope we have at least another nine years together as Tibetan Mastiffs live to about 13. But I won’t allow myself to see life without him. I’m not ready to face up to that just yet.

“… you can see a real glint in his eye when he wants to play.”

A A

PO L

Police OF

7 February 201

A S S O CI A T I

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T H AU S T R

A S S O CI A

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Journal

ING UNCOVER ATE IM LT U E H T CE NEGLIGEN

Police www.pasa.asn.au

Journal

Up to 30% discount on memberships and room hire plus more Save up to 25% on a first-year membership 40 free tickets each month (Palace Nova) Free tickets every six weeks (Universal Pictures) Up to 43% discount on standard ticket prices 15% off best available rates 10% off all food from the Strathmore, Brompton (restaurant) and Woodville (bistro)

A S S O CI A

ICE

T H AU S T R

The Members Buying Guide Another exclusive money-saver the Police Association delivers its members. Save on homewares, groceries, wine, clothes, cars, restaurants, dry cleaning, photography, paint, accountancy services and more.

Log onto PASAweb to find it: www.pasa.asn.au