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Victoria Police’s fight against organised crime is being hobbled by serious problems recruiting new informers amid concerns their safety and identities cannot be protected after the Lawyer X scandal.
Four sources in federal and state law enforcement have revealed there are “major” issues with Victoria Police’s human source program, with a failure to recruit and retain informers now impeding investigations and prosecutions of major crimes such as drug trafficking, extortion and murder.
Victoria Police has struggled to recruit informers since the Nicola Gobbo scandal.Credit: ABC
The operation of the human source program is one of Victoria Police’s most closely guarded secrets because of the high value of the intelligence provided by criminals and civilian witnesses who are at serious risk of injury or death if their co-operation is ever discovered.
When the Lawyer X scandal – where barrister Nicola Gobbo provided information to police about her clients – was unearthed it led to a crackdown on who and under what circumstances informers can be used, including making their identities more difficult to conceal in criminal prosecutions.
“We can’t make promises any more that no one will ever find out that someone has co-operated with police,” said a law enforcement officer specialising in investigating organised crime, who cannot be identified so they could speak openly about confidential police operations.
“The reality is we have to be right up front with anyone who might be willing to give us information – we can’t protect your identity, it’s probably going to come out.”
The identities of confidential informants have long been protected by special rules that prevent their disclosure in police operations and criminal prosecutions.
But these secrecy practices were called into question when the High Court ruled in 2019 the misconduct by Victoria Police in its use of Gobbo as an informer was so exceptional her identity needed to be exposed to protect the fair administration of justice.
This decision was made despite vigorous arguments from the police that the precedent could potentially imperil future informer operations.
In a 2016 confidential affidavit filed in the Supreme Court seeking to block the release of Gobbo’s identity, then-assistant commissioner Stephen Fontana wrote: “If potential police informers believe that their anonymity will not be maintained by Victoria Police, then they would be unlikely to assist Victoria Police; that will impair the ability of Victoria Police to recruit police informers in future; and it will also deter current police informers from providing any further information to Victoria Police.”
Stephen Fontana in 2020 in his then role as assistant commissioner.Credit: Simon Schluter
“If current informers cease providing information and the ability of Victoria Police to recruit and utilise future human sources is compromised, in my opinion the ability of Victoria Police to investigate serious and organised crime will be impaired.”
The flow-on effect for Victoria Police’s human source management program has been profound, sources say.
After a review of Gobbo’s use as an informer, the force drafted extensive new policies to provide “a fundamental change to the way it manages human sources”.
“Continuation of the current state of poor compliance with human source policy is likely to seriously damage Victoria Police’s reputation,” the Human Source Strategy 2018-2022 document reports.
But the stringent new registration and disclosure protocols have made it difficult to recruit new informers and keep them operating in secret.
“We’ve become reluctant to recruit sources because of the risk and even when we decide to try, there are so many regulations and barriers that it has become very difficult to meet the threshold,” the police source said.
“Everything has just slowed down. The problem is that if you’re not getting human intel then organised crime can flourish.”
A federal law enforcement source, who cannot be identified discussing sensitive internal matters, told The Age there had been a noticeable decline in Victoria Police’s ability to provide inside information in critical joint operations compared to other states.
In response to questions about its human source division, a Victoria Police spokesperson said informer management was an “inherently complex part of any criminal investigation”.
“It requires significant oversight to ensure the use of those sources and the information they provide is effective, ethical and justifiable,” the spokesperson said.
“Significant reforms have been introduced in the past few years in relation to Victoria Police’s human source practices. As a result, our systems for dealing with a human source who may have obligations of confidentiality and privilege are vastly improved, and we are one of the few Australian law enforcement agencies that adopts specific rules and safeguards for the use of human sources involving legal obligations of confidentiality or privilege.”
The spokesperson said that human sources were “only one component” of intelligence gathering and investigations.
The uncertainty over witness recruitment created by the Gobbo scandal has also contributed to a sharp decline in participation in Victoria Police’s witness protection program, which provides new identities and relocation services for human sources and witnesses deemed at serious risk of harm.
There has been a 50 per cent decline in the number of people enrolled in the state’s specialised program and falling numbers of people being referred to the service, according to heavily redacted police records tendered to Victorian parliament.
Victoria Police declined to comment on its witness protection operations.
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