UPDATE 4.50pm: POLICE Chief Commissioner Simon Overland is avoiding scrutiny into a covert investigation of Herald Sun phone records, its editor says after the top cop admitted "a handful" of journalists have been targeted in similar probes.

The Herald Sun revealed this morning that police diverted resources to covertly investigate a journalist's phone records to save face over an embarrassing whistleblower leak.

Mr Overland today confirmed the investigation began immediately after last year's report by senior writer Geoff Wilkinson that revealed interstate bikie gangs were heading to Victoria.

And Mr Overland conceded MP phone records could also be subject to scrutiny as he defended the decision to examine Herald Sun phone records.

Detectives secretly obtained call lists to find out who Mr Wilkinson had spoken to, with at least two officers committed to the case.

This afternoon, Herald Sun editor Simon Pristel told Derryn Hinch on Radio 3AW that the Chief Commissioner was "ducking for cover", by failing to answer many questions about the handling of the incident.

He stressed his reporter's articles about Melbourne's bikie threat were entirely accurate, "they’ve just been embarrassing to the police force".

And he said it was time that the same judicial oversight needed to secure a phone tap should be required to access phone records.

"We don’t dispute that police may need to chase down officers occasionally, our issue is with the covert secret way they’ve gone about this, without any due regard to process whatsoever," he said.

Mr Pristel said the attitude of police made it clear that “anybody was fair game” including MPs.

“There’s obviously there’s a question of privacy in terms of what they do with these phone records, are they destroying them at the end?

“These are many of the questions that police simply won’t answer. They won’t answer how widespread it is, how many they do, how much it costs.”

Our concern in all of this is that the Chief Commissioner has a lot of questions to answer in this and he’s ducking for cover.

Speaking on Neil Mitchell's 3AW radio show this morning, Mr Overland insisted the investigation was not aimed at Wilkinson or the Herald Sun, but was necessary to find an officer guilty of a criminal leak.

He confirmed there were "a couple of people" assigned to the case and who had already quizzed police who had spoken to Mr Wilkison.

He also also revealed there were "a handful" of other similar investigations.

"It's a small number. It's a handful, where there has been a serious leak out of the organisation."

He also conceded it was possible that MPs could be subject to phone record checks if a criminal investigation warranted it.

However, he insisted police would be “sensitive” to the political ramifications of taking such actions.

Today Opposition Leader Ted Baillieu said the Labor Government's "desperate" attempt to to cling to power was behind the investigation, while 86 per cent of Herald Sun readers said there should be an investigation into police secretly hunting whistleblowers.

“After 11 years, a desperate Brumby Government will do anything to cling to power, including using police powers in secret to harass and muzzle its critics,” Mr Baillieu said.

The latest issue raising questions about the big brother approach by Victoria Police after it confirmed it was heavily criticised for striking deals to release secret information on protesters.

Mr Overland today confirmed it would no longer strike deals with private organisations to share information, after it was told disclosing details about anti-desalination plant protesters to the company building the $5.7b plant would have breached human rights and privacy laws.

"Geoff’s done nothing to offend us, and that’s the starting point," Mr Overland said.

“The investigation's not into Geoff Wilkinson. The investigation is into the person inside the police force who illegally or unlawfully released an intelligence report.

Mr Overland denied publishing the report was a matter of public interest and democracy.

“It’s a confidential intelligence assessment," he said.

"What if that report had gone to an organised crime group? You would absolutely expect me to investigate that."

Mr Overland said police had “leaks all the time”, “but where there is a clear breach like this, where there is an intelligence report that is marked 'police in confidence' and its leaked it is absolutely incumbent on me to act”.

"I've got the OPI down my neck, I've got the Commissioner for Law Enforcement Data Security down my neck," he said.

He said police would “absolutely” continue similar investigations into serious matters and vehemently denied the phone records check was an attempt to protect the public image of the force.

He conceded phone records of a call to Radio 3AW’s Rumour File about “serious threats to a senior member of Victoria Police” had also recently been checked.

Asked about the fairness of the checks, Mr Overland said those not undertaking any criminal activity would not face any investigation.

“If you’ve done nothing wrong and you’ve got nothing to hide, what’s the problem?"

Mr Overland also suspected his own phone records had been checked, “frequently”.

He said the investigation involving Wilkinson had begun soon after the release of the report, but said he did not know how many officers had been deployed into the investigation, nor how much it cost.

“I do not have day-to-day oversight of this investigation," he said.

An inspector or above would have authorised the phone records check, Mr Overland said.

He said the decisions were made by others in the organisations, overseen by the ethical standards department.

He stressed it was the police, not the journalists, who were under investigation.

“This undermines the fabric of policing in this state. It’s against the public interest to allow these sorts of things to happen."

Mr Overland said the leak would have alerted the subjects of that report to its existence.

“It’s got the real potential to jeapordise ongoing police investigations,” he said.

Several police have been questioned in recent weeks and asked to justify phone conversations they had with Wilkinson.

The big brother policy was designed to punish the source of the story - possibly with criminal charges.

But the move has backfired on Mr Overland, sparking legal and political outrage yesterday.

Speaking yesterday, Law Institute of Victoria president Steve Stevens attacked the police strategy as improper, comparing the pursuit of journalists with activities in a "police state" or "third world country".

A police spokesman yesterday would not say how many journalists had been subjected to phone records raids.

Police also refused to answer questions about their inquiries, including the cost of pursuing the investigation and how it could be justified given resourcing issues.

High-level police sources have confirmed a covert operation was conducted after the Herald Sun revealed a confidential police alert last November detailing how two notorious outlaw motorbike gangs had arrived in Victoria.

The police intelligence report warned that the Comancheros and Finks had set up shop and were looking for premises in Melbourne's inner suburbs.

Embarrassed by the report, the police hierarchy then launched an investigation that included covertly retrieving Wilkinson's phone records.

The Herald Sun also believes a taskforce was formed to track down a source after a Herald Sun front page story on Asian gangs by chief police reporter Mark Buttler.

The police spokesman yesterday declined to comment on the taskforce.

The decision to retrieve Herald Sun call records has outraged lawyers while government sources have privately questioned the way Mr Overland has handled the force's image.

Mr Stevens said: "I think anyone knowing about this would be appalled."

A senior government source said police powers needed to be used for the right purposes and not for singling out journalists. "This is over the top," the source said.

In a carefully worded statement, the Government wouldn't publicly criticise police or distance Premier John Brumby from the policy.

"Victoria Police does not brief the Victorian Government about how it carries out its investigations," a spokesman said.

It is believed police widely use call charge record checks, where they can demand an individual's phone records without them knowing.

Police do not need the approval of a magistrate or judge to check the records, unlike a phone tap, which requires a judge's approval.

Police of the rank of inspector or above can authorise access to phone records under the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act.

Police forces, intelligence agencies and dozens of other organisations are entitled to seek records to enforce criminal law and laws imposing pecuniary penalties, protecting public revenue and safeguarding national security.

Outspoken 3AW announcer Derryn Hinch yesterday blasted police over the phone checks after a police officer's home was allegedly raided after a family member apparently called the radio station.

Checking phone calls, which can prove expensive, while the force faces severe budget constraints has raised questions about Mr Overland's motives.

Mr Baillieu said the state's freedom of the press was being undermined by the Victoria Police probe.

“Hard-working Victoria Police officers should not be targeted and punished for exposing the law and order failures of John Brumby and his incompetent police minister," Mr Baillieu said.

“Under John Brumby, the freedom of the press is threatened by Victoria Police secretly accessing journalists’ phone records and the government potentially misusing these records for political purposes.

“The Brumby Government has already been busted snooping into the private affairs of political opponents through secret deals between private companies and Victoria Police on the desalination plant and the north-south pipeline.

“John Brumby cannot be trusted when he claims he is a crusader for media freedom while the government is secretly snooping through media phone records to identify and shut down critics and whistleblowers.”

Originally published as Overland 'ducking for cover'