Tutorial Case Study: Week 5.

NSW Police Corruption: Policing the

Police

Case Synopsis
In 1997, a formal judicial inquiry into one of the world’s largest police organizations reported
that the organization was systematically and unequivocally plagued by widespread corruption
(Wood, 1997). During the years that followed, numerous officers, including senior officers, were
indicted and more than 500 found it within their best interest to resign on stress or medical-
related grounds, thus preserving pensions and avoiding exposure (Wood, 1997). There was
considerable concern in the Government, and much of the broader community, especially as it
was articulated through the media that the institutionalized corruption that had been exposed
should not recur.
In the report of the judicial inquiry, recommendations were made that went straight to the
heart of the organization’s structure. The inquiry recommended that the organization should
introduce structures and practices more in tune with contemporary management theory to replace
its traditional command and control hierarchy, derived from militaristic models. Since then,
acting in response to these recommendations, the organization has initiated a reform programme
aimed at creating a more democratic work environment and culture. New forms of organizing,
characterized by flatter structures, teamwork and empowerment strategies, were introduced. The
objective of introducing these new forms, among other things, was to give the vast majority of
officers (who had been muted in the past), the voice that the inquiry thought they required, so as
to be able to speak out against corruption.
In the past, in the NSW Police Service, seniority and fear were the key resources: seniors
could test the mettle of younger officers in the field by implicating them unwittingly in corrupt
ways, often by including them in its spoils in order to see what their reaction would be. Younger
police officers, already drilled in respect for authority conceived as seniority, soon learned to fear
retribution if they did not comply with authoritatively transmitted instructions and invitations to
be corrupt.
The political decision to hold a Royal Commission of Inquiry and to equip it with
sophisticated forms of intelligence and surveillance and arm it with the discretionary power to
‘turn’ police officers confronted with evidence of their own guilt, proved decisive in exposing
the widespread institutionalization of illegitimate authority.
Case Brief
Consult the Royal Commission into the NSW Police by Justice James Wood in preparation for
the tutorial. You may also find the linked article helpful

The Royal Commission into the NSW Police

https://www.pic.nsw.gov.au/OtherReportsAndPublications.aspx

Gordon et al. (2009)

Embedded Ethics: Discourse and Power in the New South Wales Police Service’,
Organization Studies, 30 (1): 73–99.

Case Questions
1. Explain the culture of corruption in the NSW Police through the lens of artefacts, espoused
values and basic assumptions.
2. Cultural change, according to Schein (2010), occurs by cognitive redefinition. This involves
1. a semantic change in old concepts, 2. a change in standard and 3. the introduction of new
concepts and meanings.
Using these ideas, explain how NSW attempted to change the culture of corruption.