Top cop's most dangerous adversary CAMERON STEWART, ASSOCIATE EDITOR The Australian October 28, 2011 12:00AM BY the time Simon Overland resigned as chief commissioner of Victoria Police in June, he knew he had garnered some powerful enemies. The state government, the Police Association, the media and his former deputy Ken Jones were among those who seemed happy to see the back of the controversial police chief. But could Overland have imagined that arguably his deadliest adversary was a modestly ranked detective leading senior constable working as a police adviser in the office of Police Minister Peter Ryan? The allegedly central role played by Tristan Weston in Overland's downfall is detailed in a report, Crossing the Line, released yesterday by the Office of Police Integrity. It portrays Weston as a maverick who harboured a deep dislike of Overland and who worked feverishly to undermine the chief commissioner at every turn, leaking stories and playing hardball politics. "It is clear that in the performance of his role as police adviser, Mr Weston was pursuing his own political agenda... he found himself in a position of power and influence no new member of parliament could have dreamed of and he simply did not know where to draw the line, or much care," the OPI report says. These activities, says the OPI, included a close and unseemly collusion with then deputy police chief Jones, who says he believed Weston was acting with the full knowledge and support of the Baillieu government. Ryan maintains that Weston was running his own race, taking actions the minister did not authorise and did not know about. It was, he says, a sackable offence and a "dreadful breach of trust". "At the end of the day, as this report confirms, he (Weston) set out on a folly of his own to do what he did," Ryan said yesterday. "This has all the hallmarks of Walter Mitty and I regret terribly that it has happened." But Ryan and the Baillieu government may have to do more to explain how someone working out of the Police Minister's office could orchestrate such a litany of secret meetings, media leaks and other activities against Overland without Ryan or his senior staff being aware of at least some of it.
Weston told the OPI that Ryan's chief of staff, Ben Hindmarsh, was aware of and condoned some of these activities and the OPI says Weston asserts that some of it was "implicitly condoned" by Ryan. Both Hindmarsh and Ryan strongly dispute these claims. It is no secret the Baillieu government was not well disposed towards Overland when it won office in November last year, believing he had forged an uncomfortably close relationship with the Brumby Labor government. The OPI says it found no evidence to suggest Ryan was aware of Weston's activities, but also concedes that any investigation of what politicians knew about it were outside its powers because OPI can focus only on police and Weston was still a serving member. The findings in the OPI report could lead to criminal charges against Weston, who resigned his government position yesterday. The report also attacks Jones for failing to uphold professional and ethical standards by forging an unhealthy relationship with Weston. It is a finding that cruels any hope Jones had of returning to a senior position in law enforcement in Victoria. The parliamentary secretary for police, Bill Tilley, a key Baillieu supporter, also has resigned for his role in the affair. The impartiality of the OPI's investigation has been questioned by Weston and Jones, with Weston claiming that OPI's relationship with Overland was too cosy to allow it to publish a balanced report. Although the government is desperately distancing itself from Weston's actions, it chose to employ the policeman in March this year knowing he was a firm critic of Overland. Weston had stood unsuccessfully as a Liberal candidate for the northern Melbourne seat of Macedon at last year's state election and Weston claims Ryan chose him because the minister wanted someone with a "strong bullshit detector". Overland was unimpressed with the appointment and the OPI believes Weston knew this and resented Overland for it. During his interrogation under oath to the OPI, Weston was open about his belief that Overland was a poor chief commissioner. He regarded the appointment of Overland's predecessor, Christine Nixon, as "a watershed moment" in the decline of Victoria Police and that this had continued under Overland. "My ultimate aim was to continue to bring, to hold, Mr Overland to account," Weston told the OPI. "If Mr Overland had have pulled his socks up and started running the police force properly, I wouldn't have had an issue with (him)... (I wanted to) simply show the real man himself."
Weston told the OPI that members of the Australian Federal Police had warned him that Overland "couldn't be trusted as he was a political animal". "I had concerns that he was not apolitical, that he was working against this government... I had concerns about his honesty," Weston told investigators. Overland told the OPI that he regarded Weston's claims as "an outrageous slur". According to the OPI, soon after Weston took up the job of police adviser in March, he began leaking stories to the media that painted Overland in a poor light. The following month he struck up a relationship with Jones, who told Weston that he had resigned from Victoria Police because of a strained relationship with Overland. Jones and Weston also forged a close relationship with Greg Davies, head of the powerful Police Association, a body that was also highly critical of Overland's performance. In addition, Weston enjoyed a close association with parliamentary secretary for police Tilley, who was equally critical of the chief commissioner. Perhaps believing that Overland's days were numbered, Weston was keen for Jones to withdraw his resignation. He told Jones in May that Davies had brokered a "deal" whereby if the government accepted the withdrawal of Jones's resignation, the Police Association would soften its approach to industrial relations issues with the government. Jones then wrote a draft letter withdrawing his resignation and sent a copy to Weston and Davies. But Jones was adamant that he would withdraw his resignation only if he had Ryan's public support for it. It soon became clear to Jones that Weston had oversold the government's position and the government would remain neutral if he chose to withdraw his resignation. So Jones chose not to withdraw his resignation. "Within a short space of time it became clear that government endorsement, if it ever existed, would not be forthcoming," Jones said. The OPI says that Jones "conducted a relationship with Mr Weston in a manner wholly inconsistent with the professional and ethical standards to be expected of a deputy commissioner of police". "In his conversations with Mr Weston, (Jones) was highly critical of the management of Victoria Police generally and Mr Overland in particular," the report says. "This investigation provides yet another example... of the mischief and harm that will nearly always result when a senior public official seeks clandestine avenues through which to channel criticisms of his or her department and chief executive to government."
Jones said yesterday he had been led to fully believe Weston was acting with the support and knowledge of Ryan and said Weston would says things like "Peter (Ryan) asked me to pass on to you" as evidence of that direct support. "I believed that I was dealing with a government reaching out in what appeared to be a genuine attempt to stabilise a difficult and volatile situation," Jones said. The OPI appears to be anxious to see criminal charges brought against Weston for his behaviour. Yet it also admits that Weston was placed in an impossible position by being appointed as police adviser where he had a dual role of protecting the government while also adhering to police rules. "In hindsight, it is surprising how it was ever thought appropriate for a serving member of police to occupy such a position in the minister's office," the OPI says. Leaking stories to the media and seeking to manipulate events to sideline perceived political enemies are standard fare for many political staff members, but Weston is compromised by the fact that as a serving policeman those same actions may have breached police regulations. The OPI questions whether Weston was fully aware of the boundaries within which he had to operate as a sworn police employee. "Either he was not properly instructed in the proper limits of his role or he failed to understand or ignored the instructions he was given," the OPI says. Ryan's chief of staff, Hindmarsh, says he had warned Weston on several occasions that leaking would not be tolerated. For his part, Weston denies that he has brought the Victoria Police into disrepute. "He (Weston) said it was possible to be critical of the chief commissioner without bringing Victoria Police into disrepute," the OPI says. "He said that he had never disclosed anything that was operationally sensitive and never disclosed anything he had a duty as a police member not to disclose or which breached his duties to the minister." Weston's lawyers say he has committed nothing unlawful that would justify criminal charges. Yesterday's OPI report is likely to rekindle debate about whether the troubled watchdog -- which will be wound up next year -- has lost its way by launching such large and invasive investigations into what was essentially a political tussle between a police chief, his deputy and the government of the day.
Similar allegations were levelled at the OPI when it put untested evidence into the public arena that destroyed the careers of then Police Association chief Paul Mullett and former assistant commissioner Noel Ashby, neither of whom was subsequently convicted of a crime. The OPI was established to tackle serious issues of police corruption but under outgoing director Michael Strong it has focused instead on internal police politics and related media leaks. The watchdog also has been accused of being too close to Overland to be able to report impartially on issues relating to the former chief. The OPI denies the claim. Overland's rival, Jones, said yesterday he was "very disappointed with the negative construction that has been placed on me (by the OPI)". Weston also has accused the OPI's report of lacking balance, alleging that the watchdog is too close to Overland and that it reveals a bias against himself, Jones and the Police Association's Davies. Former premier Jeff Kennett was critical of both Weston and Jones yesterday for their involvement in what he said was a campaign to oust the chief commissioner, whom he described as an "honest cop". He described the episode as a blot on public administration and said the role of police adviser should be scrapped. It is ironic that one of the factors that led to Overland's downfall was the criticism he received after he asked the OPI to investigate his deputy, Jones, whom he suspected of leaking information to the media. The OPI report has now passed it judgment on Jones, but Overland did not survive long enough to see it. A personal clash between the state's two most powerful police fuelled by the involvement of a controversial watchdog has recast the face of law enforcement in Victoria and left the government with some awkward questions to answer.