Exclusive: Rick Flori, who leaked video of police colleagues bashing a man, says police and the CCC ‘don’t care’

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

The Queensland Crime and Corruption Commission has declined to investigate allegations of reprisals against whistleblower police officer Rick Flori, who leaked footage of his colleagues bashing a Gold Coast father.

None of the officers involved in the bashing has been charged. Instead, police attempted to prosecute Flori for releasing the footage, taken from the basement of the Surfers Paradise police station in 2012.

Flori, a former sergeant, was found not guilty of misconduct in February.

He says the charges, disciplinary action, harassment and intimidation against him constituted a reprisal action against a whistleblower, and is suing eight officers and the state government for damages.

The CCC, the body charged with oversight of the police, told Flori in 2016 it would not assess his complaint while the misconduct charge was before the court.

On Monday, more than six months after Flori was acquitted, his supporters bombarded the CCC Facebook page to demand they now interview him and investigate the matter.

The CCC responded to one member of the public late on Monday to “advise this complaint is being assessed”.

The same day, the commission’s assistant director of integrity services, Darren Brookes, sent a letter to Flori to say he was “not minded to ... reopen this matter”.

“We requested that if you wished to renew your complaint then it was incumbent upon you to provide the CCC with details of any substantive adverse comment, or finding, made by the presiding judicial officer regarding the conduct of any QPS officer,” Brookes wrote.



Flori told Guardian Australia the suggestion the CCC would only investigate a matter once a judge had made an adverse finding or comment was “outrageous”.

He said that approach by the CCC had become common and meant that police actions in bringing charges often escaped scrutiny.

In Flori’s case, the matter before the courts was his own alleged misconduct. A jury found him not guilty but the court was never asked, or entitled, to make findings on the actions of police in bringing the charge.

“They’re basically saying they won’t even investigate until there’s a court ruling that wrongdoing occurred, or they’re asking me to investigate this and bring them evidence myself. Only I’m not getting paid $130,000 a year to do it, like the investigators at the CCC. They’ve never once contacted me or sought to interview me.”

“The police and the CCC just don’t care about whistleblowers,” he said.



Brookes wrote that Flori had “not particularised any evidence” in support of his claims.



“In addition to this you have not provided a cogent explanation, or reason, as to why the CCC should consider the reopening of the complaint.”

“Back to the bad old days”

Civil libertarians have criticised the CCC over the their lack of action in the Flori case.

Terry O’Gorman, the civil liberties campaigner who played a crucial role in the establishment of the Fitzgerald inquiry in Queensland more than 30 years ago, has previously spoken about Flori’s case and said the CCC had become too “toothless” to protect police whistleblowers.

Michael Cope, the president of the Queensland civil liberties council, said part of the problem stemmed from the decision in 2001 to merge the state’s criminal justice commission with the Queensland crime commission.

Cope said the crime and misconduct commission, which later became the CCC, effectively functions as a “super police force” that handled major criminal cases alongside the oversight of police and the public sector. He argued those roles should be separated.

“Complaints about police are now [mostly] dealt with internally and at the same time [the CCC] became a super police force ... rather than investigating police misconduct.

“We would argue you need a separate body to investigate police wrongdoing. We’re back to the bad old days pre-Fitzgerald where people are contacting [the civil liberties council] saying things like ‘I made a complaint about the police and a sergeant from the same police station turned up to investigate the complaint’.”

Cope said the CCC response to Flori, and its suggestion they would not investigate unless a judge had made an adverse finding or comment, was not adequate.

“The CCC can’t dodge its responsibilities to investigate a complaint on that basis. It’s a rarity for judges to make those sorts of findings in that context,” Cope said.



“The real question is, is there sufficient information ... to proceed with his complaint.”

The CCC told Guardian Australia in a statement on Wednesday it would reconsider the matter “if further information was provided”.

“It is important to note that the CCC’s jurisdiction requires a reasonable suspicion of corrupt conduct before an investigation can be commenced,” it said in a statement. “It is the assessment of complaints and fulsome information which assists in determining if there is a reasonable suspicion.”

The CCC also rejected suggestions it does not provide effective oversight of the police.



“The CCC recently led a reform of the entire police discipline system and secured support from ... the government, opposition, police unions and the [police]. The reforms will deliver greater transparency, timeliness of investigations and oversight of complaints involving [police].”