“The police commissioner is wrong. He’s a very nice, pleasant person, but unfortunately, he’s a hell of a long way from the front line,” Collins said. She said communities were telling the National Party they wanted police “to be able to police the law” and suggested Coster’s problem was too much obedience to the Government. “The commissioner in my opinion has unfortunately lost the confidence of many of his frontline troops, and that’s a dreadful situation because he’s a very pleasant and nice and intelligent person – he tries his best. But you can’t serve the community as well as the Government.”
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Police are hoping to release a decision in early July on whether charges will be laid over allegations of abuse in the adolescent unit at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital in the 1970s.
Detective Superintendent Thomas Fitzgerald said police admitted an institutional failing in their two previous investigations into abuse allegations at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital.
Photo: Screenshot / Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care
Two previous investigations, in 1977 and 2010, resulted in no charges being laid.
The head of the Criminal Investigation Branch, Detective Superintendent Thomas Fitzgerald has told the Inquiry into Abuse in Care, the latest investigation has been wider in scope than the previous ones.