POLICE SACKING WON'T END DOUBTS

THE sacking of a man who has already given notice of his resignation is evidence that the relationship between manager and employee has irretrievably collapsed. When the manager happens to be the Chief Commissioner of Police, Simon Overland, and the employee is his Deputy Commissioner (Crime), Sir Ken Jones, it is also evidence of a fundamental clash over the direction of policing in Victoria. When Sir Ken submitted his resignation earlier this week, to take effect in August, neither man conceded any truth in the much-rumoured tension between them. But a terse statement issued on Mr Overland's behalf yesterday said that he had ordered Sir Ken to leave by the end of the day because it was ''both right for him and Victoria Police''. The comment suggests as much about mounting pressures on Mr Overland as it does about Sir Ken's untenable situation.
On Tuesday The Age reported that before last November's state election the Brumby government had persuaded Mr Overland to release politically favourable, but incomplete and potentially misleading, crime statistics. But the decision was opposed by Sir Ken and police media director Nicole McKechnie, who argued that releasing the information so close to an election in which public safety was a major issue amounted to a partisan act by the police. The Age report identified Sir Ken's dissatisfaction with the decision as a factor in his resignation.

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