Victoria Police "cannot be trusted" to investigate claims of misconduct levelled at officers, lawyers say, as CCTV footage emerges of an officer hurling a handcuffed prisoner into a metal door at a Bendigo police station.

The police report of the incident alleged Jia Meeks had attempted to headbutt the police officer holding his arm while he was being processed after arrest.

But the video does not appear to show any attempted headbutt. It shows Mr Meeks — in a drunken state and refusing to have his photo taken — trying to wriggle his arm free of the officer's grip.

Jia Meeks' face was left bloodied after the incident in custody. ( Supplied )

He is then hurled in a 180-degree arc around the officer's body. As both men fall to the floor, Mr Meeks' head hits the door of a holding cell.

More officers quickly arrive. As Mr Meeks lies face down, one prods his leg with his foot.

Minutes later, Mr Meeks is led off to a holding cell as an officer wipes his blood off the floor.

Incident followed drunkenness outside hotel

It was March 2015. Around midnight, police in Bendigo responded to a report of a man behaving aggressively outside a hotel.

Mr Meeks admits he was in a bad state.

Jia Meeks' hand was also injured and swollen. ( Supplied )

He had been drinking heavily after the violent death of a family member, which brought back the trauma of a car crash he had been in three years before, in which two of his friends were killed.

He had been in trouble with the law before, with a history of fines and correction orders for serious offending, including punching some young men he had robbed in a park in 2012.

Police said when they approached Mr Meeks, he was swearing at them and acting aggressively.

The police report said he kicked out at the officer trying to put him into the police van, who was forced to punch him to restrain him.

Mr Meeks was charged with resisting arrest. The charge was proven, but later dismissed.

Police also charged him over the alleged headbutt, but that was later dropped.

Mr Meeks did not make a complaint at the time, nor did any officer at the station refer the CCTV vision to Police Professional Standards Command for review.

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Complaints system 'failing Victorians'

The incident, and the video obtained by The Age, are now being investigated by the police oversight body, the Independent Broad-based Anti-Corruption Commission (IBAC).

It adds to growing pressure on the Victoria Police complaints system, after two other cases revealed this week by an ABC/The Age investigation showed officers on CCTV allegedly using excessive force.

One video showed police taking down a disability pensioner in the front yard of a home in Melbourne's north.

Sorry, this video has expired Disability pensioner John is hit with a baton and sprayed with capsicum foam outside his home

Another captured the moment an officer stomped on, punched and kicked a handcuffed man arrested after robbing a pharmacy armed with a pair of scissors.

Hugh de Kretser, the executive director of the Human Rights Law Centre, said the Victorian Government needed to create an independent body to investigate misconduct accusations.

"We need a police complaints system the public can trust and that delivers fairness and that delivers justice," he said.

"The current system is failing Victorians and the odds are stacked against anyone who complains against police."

It's a tough job, Minister says

At a media conference to mark the start of new laws to protect police from deliberate car attacks, Police Minister Lisa Neville said it was important to remember it was a dangerous job.

"Our police officers not only put their lives on the line but are actually assaulted, attacked, sworn at, spat on every single day, she said.

"It's not our role to second guess how our officers operate when they are protecting the community."

Ms Neville said the incidents caught on CCTV were confronting, but should not be used to tarnish the entire force, which was acting in the best interests of the community.

She said it was appropriate the footage had been referred to IBAC for investigation.

Lawyer Tamar Hopkins called for reform to "a system of police investigating themselves". ( ABC News: Danielle Bonica )

But lawyer Tamar Hopkins, from the Flemington and Kensington Community Legal Centre, said IBAC referred about 90 per cent of complaints back to police to be investigated further.

"These are being investigated by police at the regional level. So what we're seeing … is really a system of police investigating themselves."

She said conflicts of interest meant police "cannot be trusted" to conduct those investigations.

We need to restore public confidence: police

Ms Neville said Victoria Police needed to have some kind of internal complaints process in addition to the independent IBAC system.

"IBAC provides the independent oversight, they audit cases the police haven't reviewed, they take cases directly, they report to Parliament," she said.

"To say that Victoria Police should not investigate any complaints is just extraordinary.

"You don't do that in the health system. If you've got a complaint about an adverse event in a hospital you go through your health system first."

Sorry, this video has expired CCTV footage of police punching, kicking and stomping on a man during an arrest in a Melbourne pharmacy

On Tuesday, the acting head of Professional Standards, Assistant Commissioner Luke Cornelius, conceded public confidence in the complaints system had taken a hit.

"It is clear to me that both Victoria Police and IBAC need to do more to recover that confidence, increase transparency and engage more effectively with community advocacy groups that are seeking to assist clients who have very serious concerns about police behaviour and conduct," he told a media conference.

"I have a very clear commitment to working with both the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission and also the chair of the Police Review Services Board … to recover that confidence."