People you meet along the way - Episode Four - Police corruption

Terry Gallaway OAM discusses police corruption in New South Wales, addressing the challenges officers face and the impact on their reputations. He shares a personal experience involving drink driving charges and informal court arrangements. The narrative also touches on police sponsorship for the Sydney Hobart yacht race and historical corruption issues. Gallaway emphasizes the importance of maintaining officer integrity for public safety and hints at the next episode featuring Detective Roger Rogerson.

Transcript

1:09

Hello, I'm Terry Galloway. Nowadays term that veteran Sydney journalist who hung out a lot with the city's cops and crooks, the running joke around the clubs and clubs and in some media in the late 1970s and eighties went along the lines. New South Wales has the best police force money can buy In the insuring three decades and more. It came to pass that a lot of men and women in the blue did succumb to the temptation to earn some easy money. On the other side of the coin, I met admired and became mates with many true blue coffers who hated their reputations being sallied by the wrongdoers and whom I would trust with my life if necessary. At the height of these claims of corruption and the decision to split up the CIB squads blaming it as being the center of the corruption, I learned just how deeply within the system people could be bought and favors gained. I've been approached by the management of two GB to see what could be done about a sales executive facing drink driving charges, and due to face North Sydney court in good faith, I approached a police prosecutor I knew, explained that the salesman really needed his license for his job. An hour or so later, he rang back, tell him to go to court. He won't be called until all the other matters are dealt with. He'll be heard just before four o'clock when court proceedings of the day end, but the magistrate says it will cost you a lunch and there'll be a drink in it for me. I repeated the instructions to the offender. It all went according to plan, and the case against him was dismissed with a warning naively, I called my contact back in order to organize a restaurant for the lunch only to be told The lunch in that context was actually $500 cash, and the term there's a drink in it for me, really meant $100 cash. One lesson learned. But before any money could change hands, the magistrate found himself for removed from the bench and under investigation for a number of dodgy decisions, the prosecution backed away from me and any investigations into the beaks conduct. Doing favors for the mates can sometimes lead to inadvertently being part of a dodgy deal. The decision by a group of police to get a sponsor for an entry in the Sydney Hobart yacht race needed a bit of a boost. One officer approached me, asked if the plan could get a mention during my Colton's breakfast program. I agreed in about 20 past eight next morning, put my head up on two GB with details of their desire to challenge in the great race. It worked. The sponsor heard the item as police drove him to a meeting on the following Friday. In a conversation with the officer concerned, I mentioned that my wife and me intended to have a weekend celebration in the city. He picked up the phone, made a call, and turned to me and said, $50. Okay. For two nights with dinner at the Seaville townhouse, a stunning price for one of Sydney's most expensive hotels of the stars. On another occasion, as I drove home in the two GB news car along the great Western Highway, an unmarked commodore pulled up alongside with a magnetic light flashing on the roof. I pulled over somewhat relieved when a detective, a mate of mine stepped out of the car in the proceeding week. I'd been very vocal on TGB in defense of some of the officers accused of corruption. We exchanged a few pleasantries on the side of the road and then he said, Galloway, I just wanted to say you are naive. There's lots of money changing hands always has been. He said, I built my house on the Parramatta tow truck money. A reference to the scandal that encompassed the Parramatta command in the 1970s where kickbacks came after every vehicle accident with police allocating which company would get the tow. Another lesson learned as the campaign to clean up, the cops gathered momentum. I called up the detective's office at pen on a social rather than a business occasion, you know, rather casual conversation with one very worried detective. He said, current efforts to discredit officers and investigators would have a long term effect on policing and public safety. Terry, he said, if they get rid of the tough cops, it'll be dreadful. No one will be safe. The crims will go berserk if they get rid of the cops, keeping them under control, such as the Billy Tonsils and Roger Rogerson. In the next episode, we'll take a look at the life and times and crimes of disgraced. Detective Roger Rogers.