A difference of opinion has developed over what is to be done about individual police officers in NSW exposed as corrupt. Royal Commissioner James Wood argues that demanding dismissal rather than allowing resignation will act as a deterrent against officers giving evidence to the commission, especially confessions of corruption … the more so if they lose financially. Police Minister Paul Whelan, with the support of Police Commissioner Tony Lauer, wants dismissals, saying there is a moral difference. Mr Whelan has argued that corrupt officers must be punished and seen to be punished with the loss of reputation that comes with dismissal. And Premier Bob Carr, in an attempt to resolve the issue, suggests that corrupt police should lose the government-contributed part of their superannuation.
Mr Whelan’s view appears out of context. He is looking at it from the perspective of individual morality. That perspective is fine if one were dealing with a generally clean police force and isolated incidents of corruption. But where there is widespread corruption, where it is the rule rather than the exception, the moral climate is slightly different. This is not to condone corruption, nor to excuse it, but to accept that for people in that environment the moral offence is slightly less than in an environment where officers fly in the face of an expressed and universally accepted proscription.
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