NSW Police hide the true state of crimes

[creampie]

NSW Police hold state of secrecy on crimes including rape and murder By Mark Morri and Gemma Jones

NSW Police ... are not reporting crimes and have shut the media out of important information related to crime scenes.

THOUSANDS of crimes, including rape and murder, are being hidden by the NSW Police Force with details being kept secret for days or weeks.
In a long-running investigation, The Daily Telegraph found that police are underplaying the seriousness of crimes in the force's new digital reporting system.

During one week in March, 11,508 of the 31,536 crimes reported to police were listed as ``check bona fides'' and ``concerns for welfare'', with the rest accidents or minor offences. Concern for welfare and check bona fides are police terms covering almost any crime from murder to kids hanging on a corner.

One crime the public has not known about until today was the abduction and rape of a 26-year old woman by two masked men.

Caitlan has told her story to The Daily Telegraph as a warning to women . "You need to know there are monsters out there worse than the ones in our dreams," she said.

Yet more than two months after Caitlan's assault, not a word about her attack has been released by police.

Former senior officers and academics said spin doctors adopted the release system two years ago because they wanted to control information about crime.

Police said a new computer system named PEATS would provide timely information about crimes, including weapons, whether shots had been fired and other details.

The system was introduced to relay information to the media after police encrypted police radio to digital frequencies for security reasons. Instead, the system has been consistently failing to list serious crimes.

To address the issue, The Daily Telegraph today launches Victims Voice where we ask the public to tell us if you are a victim of crime or know someone who has.

Police have confirmed Caitlan's story and are actively investigating her rape. They have no suspects but are pursuing leads.

"Police regularly issue warnings and seek public assistance at the start of an investigation but there are occasions where police need to hold off," a spokesman for Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione said.

"In this instance, the investigating officers made an operational judgment - the modus operandi indicated they were not dealing with serial offender(s) and there was no further risk to the local community.

"NSW Police has no evidence of the community being put at risk through the way it manages and strategically releases information to the public through the media. "

This is despite reports of sexual assault in the Eastern Suburbs rising by 47 per cent, according to the latest figures by the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics.

High-profile murders in Sydney in the past year, including the deaths of nurse Michelle Beets and standover man Michael McGurk, were released on the police system simply as an assault or a check bonafides.

A former assistant commissioner and confidant of Mr Scipione said the force and the commissioner's office in particular was driven by controlling public perception.

"There is a preoccupation in the commissioner's office of the image of the commissioner in the media," former assistant commissioner Mark Goodwin said.

"There is also a preoccupation with controlling and managing or massaging the media around that image.

"I had over 20 years as a detective in the special services group, all the covert areas of the police, the homicide squad, robbery squad, drugs squad and undercover and the police need the media to solve crime.

"The community has got a right to know when crimes have occurred. Through media reporting, witnesses come forward. When a crime hits the media the phone rings."

He said he could give hundreds of examples of murders and drug cases solved through timely public appeals.

Police now were "too scared to speak out". "Instead spin doctored media releases are coming from above which are all about massaging the image of the commissioner and his office and the image of the police."



*Help us uncover the TRUE state of crime in NSW. If you have been a victim, report it to police and then tell us - we will investigate and let the public know.

Send us the report in our special section at http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au or call us on (02) 9288 2686, all details will be kept confidential

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/n ... 5887766556