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key indigenous australian issues
| home | news lPolicemen sacked for KKK prankDavid Fickling in Sydney 20 April 2004 - As a force struggling to shake off a racist image, the Western Australia police hardly needed a speed camera catching two officers racing through a town centre wearing Ku Klux Klan-style hoods. The incident in August 2001 was condemned by officers, before it was discovered that the culprits driving at more than twice the speed limit were colleagues in an unmarked police car. Yesterday the state police commissioner, Barry Matthews, sacked the two perpetrators of the 75mph "prank" in the rural town of Bunbury, south of Perth. "I accept it was done as a prank, and I accept there was no racist intention. There was no suggestion they were trying to masquerade as Ku Klux Klan," he told the Perth radio station 6PR. "They were just disguising themselves and they thought they were being smart, but I think afterwards they realised it was incredibly stupid and foolish." The two officers were on duty at the time of the stunt, which one of them confessed to his superiors late last year. "I am not a corrupt cop, I just stuffed up on the night," the officer, named only as Frank, said yesterday. Source: Guardian (UK) Hooded cop speaks out Presenter: Liam Bartlett 19 April 2004 - A Police officer facing dismissal after being caught wearing a white hood while speeding past a speed camera says he's sorry he confessed to the prank. The 42-year-old admitted to being one of two officers from Bunbury who drove an unmarked patrol car at 126 kilometres per hour in a 60 kilometre zone. After an internal investigation, the Police Commissioner, Barry Matthews has recommended to the Police Minister, Michelle Roberts that the officers be sacked. The man has told the ABC's morning program that the prank was sparked by his disillusionment with the Police service after an inquiry into his conduct over an earlier incident. He says he regrets his confession: "Yes I do actually. But I shouldn't have done the prank in 2001. As my wife's said all along, it's not the other officer's fault that I came out. I did the mistake in 2001 and I've got to wear it." The Police Commissioner Barry Matthews says he agonised over the decision to recommend dismissal of the two officers. He's told the ABC's Morning Program that he might have decided on more lenient treatment if the officers had committed the prank when they were off duty. But he says the act was a breach of trust and breach of their oaths: "At the end of the day they effectively changed their roles. They moved from being enforcement officers to offenders. And the whole thing was steeped in deceipt." The Police Union President Mike Dean says the two officers can appeal to the Industrial Relations Commission, but it's the union's opinion the officers have been treated fairly. Source: ABC WArelated links :
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