South Australia/Police

South Australia/Police  link Website
Formation	28 April, 1838
Headquarters	Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
Leaders	South Australia/Minister/Police,Commissioner of the South Australia Police
A police agency of the state of South Australia, including Adelaide, its biggest city.

The South Australia Police Force (SAPOL) is a law enforcement agency of the state of South Australia, Australia, including Adelaide, its biggest city.

In an interview, former criminal Barry Stanton said that, as a result of his previous criminal career,

I know to be a fact who controls the drug scene. I know who controls prostitution. I know who controls organized crime … and it is not who the general population think it is.

"Security organisations beyond Australia"

A 1977 inquiry into South Australian police force's special branch was conducted for the Don Dunstan state government by supreme court Acting Justice J.M. White. His terms of reference were to establish whether records or material were kept on people who were not suspected or had committed an offence. White noted that "material which I know to be inaccurate, and sometimes scandalously inaccurate, appears in some dossiers and on some cards. Some of this information appears to have been used in 'vetting' procedures … I have seen a number of cards where information, patently false to my own knowledge, has been used to the attempted disadvantage of certain persons". The report noted that the police commissioner had failed to inform the government fully about the existence of sensitive files on matters relating to politics, trade unions and other affairs. The South Australian police hierarchy had concealed the extent of political surveillance at least three times between 1970 and 1977.

Intelligence agency analyst Jerry Aaron said of the police that "I think of what happened when Harold Salisbury who was Police Commissioner in the Don Dunstan government in South Australia. They had an inquiry into the Special Branch there after Salisbury was sacked for misleading the government and what he actually said when he was asked why he hadn't told the government the full truth he said, 'I would have merely justified a very severe criticism from responsible and official quarters and from security organisations beyond Australia' and he made it quite clear that his responsibilities were not to the government of the day but to other people and when he was pressed on the point as to who the other people were he said very weakly `The Crown', but obviously the crown that he pays allegiance to sits in the U.S."

Drug smuggling

In March, 1978, while at sea off the South Australian coast the fisherman Mellie 'Mick' Skrijel saw what he thought were fishing boats picking up heroin drops and subsequently reported it to the police. No busts and no arrests followed his tip-off. Instead Skrijel got "unlucky". His boat was burned to the waterline, his crayfish business was shunned, his home was invaded by masked men (his 12-year-old daughter, the only one at home, was terrorised), and finally his house was damaged by fire. In 1984 he took the matter to the newly established National Crime Authority and the NCA began investigating his complaints, Skrijel was not satisfied with progress, grew suspicious, and by August-September 1985 was alleging that some NCA police were involved in a cover-up.

The head of the South Australian police drug squad, Barry Moyse, was sentenced to 20 years jail in 1988 for supplying drugs, including heroin.

Brian Stanton, was a former career criminal-turned-straight. When Stanton learned about a local syndicate of drug dealers and thieves in SA's south, he told the police. Like Skrijel before him, he didn't realize he was informing on SAPOL-protected criminals. Corrupt officers soon planted a firearm in his car and arrested him for illegal possession of said weapon. What followed was a four-year ordeal that Stanton described as “a form of mental, emotional and physical torture". If you've ever had to deal with the terribly malfeasant side of SAPOL, you'll know he was in no way exaggerating. Stanton, after admitting he'd made a lot of foolish decisions in his past, told a reporter going to SAPOL with the information was “one of the greatest mistakes of judgement I've made in my life".

In an interview, Stanton said that, as a result of his previous criminal career, “I know to be a fact who controls the drug scene. I know who controls prostitution. I know who controls organized crime... and it is not who the general population think it is."