WA policemen could face Taser charges

West Australian Police Commissioner Karl O’Callaghan is under fire for refusing to stand down two officers who may face criminal charges for repeatedly tasering an Aboriginal man in the Perth Watch House.

The Corruption and Crime Commission (CCC) on Monday released its report into the August 2008 incident in which Kevin Spratt was tasered by Senior Constables Troy Tomlin and Aaron Strahan after he refused a strip search.

CCTV footage of the tasering caused public outrage and demands that the officers involved be charged.

The CCC on Monday recommended that the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) consider laying charges against the two officers, saying their actions constituted “an undue and excessive use of force which was unreasonable and unjustified”.

Acting Commissioner Mark Herron said any reasonable person viewing the footage in which Mr Spratt was tasered nine times in a little over a minute was “left with a feeling of considerable disquiet if not outrage”.

The CCC also criticises the WA Police Internal Affairs Unit investigation into the tasering, saying that while there was no misconduct by unit officers, its investigation had not resolved inconsistencies between a police summary of the facts, other documentation and the CCTV footage.

Mr O’Callaghan said all four of the CCC’s procedural recommendations for the force had already been implemented.

He said what happened to Mr Spratt was wrong and the force had apologised to him.

But the commissioner has refused to stand the two officers down, saying they had faced internal disciplinary proceedings and been fined, and he would wait for the DPP to decide on whether charges should be laid before making any further decisions on their status.

But the opposition’s shadow attorney-general John Quigley told reporters that in any other branch of the public service, people would be stood down on such a serious matter.

“If you are a public officer in the police department, you are less accountable than if you are a public officer in any other branch of the public service.

“That’s the message that the commissioner of police is sending out.”

Mr Quigley said police had misled the DPP by indicating that Mr Spratt did not want the officers prosecuted, which was not the case.

WA Police Minister Rob Johnson said he was confident the CCC recommendations already implemented by police would lead to more robust and thorough investigations by the Internal Affairs Unit in the future.

“Ultimately I believe the CCC report provides WA Police with an opportunity to move forward from this unfortunate incident, which is not reflective of the professionalism and dedication of the state’s 6000 police officers,” Mr Johnson said.

A week after being tasered by police, Mr Spratt was also tasered 11 times by Department of Corrective Services officers as they removed him from a cell.

The CCC found seven of those uses were reasonable and while no finding was made on the other four Taser uses due to insufficient evidence, it expressed concern about them.

It made five recommendations to improve corrective services procedures.

The report also concluded that the release by police of a controversial timeline of Mr Spratt’s contact with police was not misconduct.

It accepted evidence by Mr O’Callaghan that the timeline was released to preserve public confidence in the police as there was misinformation in the public domain about the events surrounding Mr Spratt.

But the CCC report said inaccuracies in the timeline should have been corrected before it was released.

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