THE NEW ENFORCERS

The fundamental roles of standing crime commissions

Organized and serious crimes do pose a vital risk to the economy of Australia and its way of life.  These groups do operate nationally, in the state and territory and the international borders across private and public sectors. The corruption and crime commission in Australia accepts as well as investigates all allegations of misconduct by the police officers and the public officers including those officers that are employed in the local government. It conducts some educational programs with some state government agencies and also in the community to amplify awareness of all misconducts and how to counter them.

The Australian Crime Commission was actually established when Australian Crime Commission Act was effected in the year 2003. It is basically a merge of the National Crime Authority, the office of the strategic criminal assessment and the Australian Bureau of Criminal intelligence. These combinations do give the whole organization the experience and abilities of intelligence and operations. The National Crime Authority is an Australian law enforcement agency that was established in the year 1984. In 2003 it got superseded by Australian Crime Commission. It is meant to lead the national law enforcement response into an organized crime which could ultimately overcome some jurisdictional barriers of the Australian system of federal. There have been many instances where NCA have been criticized for the misuse of its powers and some lack of effectiveness. The primary objective of the ACC is to strengthen the fight against some nationally important crime in Australia and deals with organized criminal activities. It is therefore imperative to analyze critically the role of the standing crime commissions and how intelligence has played a role in fighting crimes.

Australian governments have in the past tackled the problems to do with corruption and the organized crimes by the establishment of specialist agencies that are investigative with some coercive powers that are usually not available to the conventional forces of police. These agencies which are New South Wales Crime Commission, the National Crime Authority, the Independent Commission against Corruption that is located in New South Wales and the Criminal Justice Commission in Queensland were also given the powers which were actually considered to be essential as conventional police methods failed to address the problems. The National Crime Authority which was established in the year 1984 was as a result of the reports of some numbers of royal commissions on the extent and nature of the organized crimes in Australia. The New South Wales Crime commission had its origin as State Drug Crime Commission in a response to some organized crimes mostly those that were drug related. The Independent Commission against corruption did arose from some allegations of a widespread corruption in New South Wales and Criminal Justice Commission got established following the recommendation of the Inquiry commission into some possible illegal activities and some associated misconduct of the police in Queensland.

Though these crime commissions were actually created by the government, to some extent they are the product of the media. The media reports on corruption and some organized crimes of the royal commissions ensured there was public support for all ongoing bodies which had some special powers in combating the menaces. While the governments establish the crime commissions for similar reasons just as they establish the royal commissions, they do wish to bring matters in the limelight and bring all offenders to the court. However, the resources and powers that does enable the standing crime commissions to collect some vital information on some far reaching and complex activities as well as criminal connections, they are incompatible with the investigation of focused individual offences and their trial.

There are patent tensions that are evident in the scope and emphasis of functions of crime commissions in their inquisitive procedures in their investigations and their gathering powers which are usually balanced by those provisions that do limit the use of that kind of evidence against witnesses. This then leads us to wonder the main role of the standing crime commissions. Basically, the crime commissions do have similar focus and origin and their functions as far as legislation is concerned reveal the emphasis on either bringing light to corrupt practices or the investigations which will usually do assemble some admissible evidence for some criminal prosecution to take place. The community and the governments expectation of the crime commission is to do a thorough job in coming up with some admissible evidence.

The NCA has specific and general functions. The General function of NCA is to encompass the analysis and collection of all criminal information as well as intelligence that relates to all criminal activities and the dissemination to enforcement law agencies. They also conduct some ordinary investigations into crucial criminal activities and cooperate with the stake task force and Commonwealth to see into it that this is done. It also has special functions which are to investigate all matters that do relate to criminal activities and where such matters are only referred by the Minister of a State or the commonwealth. The matters are then referred to an Intergovernmental Committee of the State Ministers and Commonwealth which does consider before approving the reference on whether the ordinary police methods are really effectual. Essentially, the NCAS functions focuses on coordination roles and criminal intelligence.

The Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC), principal function is generally a vast type of investigation that does not only pick allegations and complaints but all the circumstances that imply that there were corrupt conducts which encourage, allow or cause occurrence of corruption conducts or one that is related to corruption or one that is about to really occur. It deals with deep far reaching inquiries and not just some subsequent trails. They also do advice, report and do educate on strategies and practices to combat the occurrence.

The Criminal Justice Commissions (CJC) addresses problems of some official corruption ordeals and has got responsibilities that extends beyond their area of administration of criminal justice. Its primary responsibilities however is to acquire enough expertise to report and monitor on administration of the criminal justice system in Queensland. The commission also discharges functions that may not be really discharged by agencies or police in investigations of major or the organized crimes. The Standing crime commissions in order to perform their duties fully, they have been offered some exceptional powers. According to Law Council of Australia, its role is to offer intelligence, criminal databases service and investigations on significant crimes that are of public interest. The have a capacity to even compel persons to produce some document in an aid of further investigations and to answer compelling questions. Their coercive powers are essentially reinforced by offence provisions. The ACT states that it is actually a criminal offence to refute to comply with a document notice, fail in appearing at ACC examination or even fail to answer some questions. Also giving misleading and false evidence to hinder and obstruct their work is an offence. The Joint Standing Committee which works with the criminal commission reports and monitors to the parliament on functions of Corruption Crime Commission. They also inquire and report to the parliament on means by which the corruption practices of prevention can be enhanced in the public sector. Additionally, they carry all the functions that are conferred in the committee under the Corruption and Crime Commission Act 2003 (Ken et al, 2007). 

In Australia, there has been threat from some organized crimes from 1970s. The threat is due to criminal groups for example paedophile networks and the motorcycle gangs, ethnic based crimes and criminal networks. Organized crime is usually characterized by capacity and opportunism to shift the resources swiftly using some apparent lawful enterprise in order to disguise their activities. It can be a major corruption and misconduct by the public officers (Kevin, 2005). Threat of organized crimes got recognized by Australian parliament when it finally passed the Act. Its purpose was to reduce and combat incidences of organized crime.

The crime commission however has failed in this area due to some factors like the fact that it is not permitted to hold investigations of organized crimes and its purpose is to grant powers to police to enable them investigate effectively. Also the definition of what is termed as organized crime in the Act makes it complex to investigate as the exceptional powers can never be evoked (Kevin, 2005). While the traditional policing agencies do deal with some organized crimes, it is usually a vast spectrum of work. Organized crimes do require long term investment and focus. There is however constant pressure to the police to go ahead and apply resources to meet the urgent daily policing needs. The combination of traditional police investigations technique and the use of some exceptional powers have been effectual in facilitating proactive investigations to the organized crimes that have been achieved by the traditional criminal methods of investigation.

Intelligence is also a major factor that that plays a big role in the fighting of crimes. Intelligence information has already had its origins in citizens complaints which acts as a tremendous source of information to the police and can be conceptualized by either tactical or strategic data. Tactical intelligence does provide the police and the prosecutors with some localized information that does enable them to build a criminal case (Robert, 1999 ) Tactical intelligence should complement the strategic data as well as provide the law enforcement with some evidence to establish some probable cause in order for them to engage and act in the crime. The intelligence process does demand some major commitment of personnel and time thus the law enforcement should devote some considerable effort of manpower and time before useful information is offered (Robert, 1999).

Corruption and other misconducts have been an integral issue of discussion for many years. For corruption and other social evils to ebb or better still to reduce there ought to be some commission that is responsible for that. It is lucid that the standing criminal commissions have got vast roles and are doing a tremendous job. They embark on corruption ordeals and all misconduct and see to it that justice is done. Criminal intelligence is also an integral concept to be looked upon and see to it that investigations are thoroughly done. More powers should however be given to the criminal commissions for them to fully carry out their respective roles

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