Jill Rogers: acting Deputy Police Commissioner on officers getting caught falsifying 30,000 breath tests

The police have confirmed no review will take place - after it was revealed more than 100 officers are under investigation for falsifying 30,000 tests.

The falsified records were only discovered after police built a new algorithm to analyse the data, as the devices themselves cannot distinguish between legitimate and illegitimate tests.

Acting Deputy Police Commissioner Jill Rogers says it's unclear what will come out of the employment investigation.

"They'll have their own individual investigations now to work through to work out why they did it. I scratch my head, going - what on earth were they thinking? It appears many of them were done on the way from or to legitimate checkpoints."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Here to do for c Ellen.

Speaker 2 (00:01):
One hundred and twenty police officers are under investigation for
faking thirty thousand breath tests. Jill Rogers is the acting
Deputy Commissioner for the Police and with us Hi, Jill Hi, how.

Speaker 1 (00:11):
Are you am?

Speaker 2 (00:12):
I'm very well, thank you? Okay?

Speaker 1 (00:14):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (00:14):
How long a period were they doing this?

Speaker 1 (00:17):
So we started the audit from the first to July
twenty twenty four and concluded it the thirtieth of September
this year, which basically is the period of the current
investment program. So that was the period that we audited.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
Okay, And are you sure every single one of the
officers was doing it?

Speaker 1 (00:36):
Of the one hundred and twenty that we've identified years, why
were they doing? Now we're working that's going to be
interesting as to what comes out of the employment investigation,
as they'll have their own individual investigations now to work
through to work out why they did it. You know,
I scratched my head, going what on earth were they thinking?

(00:57):
It appears that many of them were done on the
way to or from legitimate checkpoints, and we've got a
range of the one hundred and twenty. Some of them
have done small numbers some of them have done more numbers.
Some of them are spread over a short period of time,
and some of the other ones are spread over the
whole period period.

Speaker 2 (01:18):
Is it because they wanted to increase the numbers that
they could say a number of breath tests so they
could say they had done that particular day. Is this
something as simple as that.

Speaker 1 (01:26):
Potentially it was. Yeah, potentially it was an individual thing
that they felt the need to contribute more to. But
you know, the thing is that exceeded the target anyway
with the legitimate testing that they've done and that we're
confident in the figures that have legitimately been tested, that
why they needed to add the extras on at the

(01:46):
start and end of the shift.

Speaker 2 (01:48):
Is it possible that they were wagging and weren't actually
doing the breath testing in the first place, but just
faking it.

Speaker 1 (01:54):
No, we've been able to go through and confirm that
they were on duty when they've been done.

Speaker 2 (02:01):
How do you do it? How do you fake a
brief test?

Speaker 1 (02:04):
So the machines that they are all assigned, they have
GPS technology in them and they're assigned to individual officers,
so they record where they are the time of the day.
All of that sort of data that are individually assigned
to the officer, and so we can see how many
tests are done. And that's where we built this algorithm
to be able to look at the data and say,

(02:27):
are there any anomalies in it? Are there any inconsistencies?
And that's how these ones came out that we could
see the algorithm that we built as indicated two tests
done within a ninety second period that was done at
over twenty kilometers to our house.

Speaker 2 (02:45):
Do you do while they're traveling? Obviously, how do you
do a fake test?

Speaker 1 (02:49):
Yeah? Yeah, so just putting the button And so this
is what the algorithm has shown up is that they
were moving. It's over what you would consider a legitimate
even a running speed. So they've been traveling while I've
done it, and that's how the algorithm has packed up consistently.

Speaker 2 (03:06):
What's the worst case for these guys, is it a
sackable offense.

Speaker 1 (03:11):
We'll have to work through the employment process with them.
So we've come up with a framework that looks at
the different levels. And of course we've got people across
the organization that have been packed up in this order,
and so we'll let that employment investigations take their place
and determine what those outcomes will be, but not flash Jill. Disappointing, Yeah, Jill,
thank you, Okay.

Speaker 2 (03:31):
Imagine, thanks very much for your time. Jill Rogers rather
acting Deputy Police Commissioner.

Speaker 1 (03:36):
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