- 9 -
revolution in attitudes in both the Police, the
other public services and the public itself. The
joint success has been considerable and by mid-1977
not only had the dramatic rise in crime been halted
and turned back, but corruption has been vastly reduced.
With the strong cooperation of the Commissioner of
Police, the Independent Commission Against Corruption,
by means of a large number of prosecutions, had installed
sufficient fear into the corrupt to stop corrupt money
moving and through its preventive and educationa 1
activities largely changed the fatalistic attitude of
the public to corruption in either the public or
private sectors. But inevitably such drastic
Until
and public action provoked repercussions in both the
private sector and in the public services.
October/November of last year these had all been
successfully surmounted.
10.
While the police action was basically a reaction
to heavy pressure from the ICAC, there was much more
to it than that. To halt and turn back crime, the
strength of other ranks and officers had been expanded
by over 40% in four years; the Force's methods and
deployment and, to some extent its chain of command, had
all been changed. With hindsight one can see that
inadequate attention was paid to the affect of all these
rapid changes on the cohesion and well-being of the Force.
CONFIDENTIAL