The Argus at KellyGang 15/9/1882
THE POLICE COMMISSION
At the sitting of the Police Commission on Wednesday several witnesses were examined whose testimony was considered important from a police point of view. The general tenour of the evidence had reference to petty grievances under which past and present members of the police force believed they suffered, but some general suggestions were made as to how the body should be administered in the future. No new facts, however, of any public importance were elicited. Sergeant Kennedy, stationed at Merino, in the Western district, was examined at considerable length respecting a number of charges which had been preferred against him by Mr Frederick Ford, of Merino, who was recently removed from the position of a justice of the peace for having misused his office.
The charges, Sergeant Kennedy said, were preferred against him by way of reprisal for having reported Mr Ford's misconduct to the Government. They extended over a period of eight years, and were six in number, viz, (1), that he was in the habit of acting as an agent for the purchase of land and cattle in the district, (2), that he grazed cattle on the public common for the people in the town, (3), that he traded and bought and sold cattle, (4), that he used the police reserve for breeding and rearing stock, (5) that he took a prominent and undue part in Parliamentary elections; and (6) that he fenced in and need an allotment of Crown lands in the township without proper authority. Sergeant Kennedy denied the whole of the charges, and produced letters from Mrs Nicholas, of the Tahara Station, and from her station manager and overseer, denying specific charges of having acted as an agent either for the purchase of land or cattle. He also produced another letter from Mr S Samuel, solicitor, Hamilton, denying that Kennedy had taken any part beyond that of an officer preserving the peace in the Normanby election of 1880, or at any other time that he knew of Kennedy further stated that the only cattle which he ever sold were a few calves, &c, which were the natural outcome of keeping milch cows for the use of his family, that he grazed two or three cows in the police reserve with the permission of the superintendent in charge of the district, and that the allotment of land referred to had been fenced in by the Police department.
The matter had been under the consideration of the chief commissioner of police, who, after inquiring into the charges, wrote to Mr. Ford, stating that he did not consider they were of such a nature as to call for any interference on his part, more particularly as such a length of time had been allowed to elapse before they were preferred. The Police department declined therefore to have anything further to do with the matter, and on the whole of the official papers in the case having been placed before the Commission and read, a similar decision was arrived at. In referring to the condition of the general police force, Sergeant Kennedy, who said he had a service of five years in the London and 19 years in the Victorian police, stated that the force had been gradually disorganised and demoralised by political influence during the last 15 or 20 years. The officers, who were made responsible for the good discipline of the men and the proper administration of the force, were thoroughly paralysed by political influence, and they were in consequence unable to enforce their authority. He gave several instances of the bad effect thus produced, such as of constables who had been dismissed for gross insubordination and other offences, and had been reinstated in defiance of their officers. Some other general evidence was given, and the commission adjourned until Monday next.
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