Police Service Board v Morris

HIGH COURT OF AUSTRALIA

Gibbs C.J., Murphy, Wilson, Brennan and Dawson JJ.

THE POLICE SERVICE BOARD AND ANOTHER V. RUSSELL JOHN MORRIS/ROBERT COLIN MARTIN

(1985) 156 CLR 397

27 February 1985

Police

Police—Disciplinary proceedings—Failure to obey lawful order—Refusal to answer questions of superior officer—Privilege against self-incrimination or exposure to penalty—Whether applicable to non-criminal disciplinary proceedings—Whether abrogated by statute—Police Regulation Act 1958 (Vict.), s. 88(1)—Police Regulations 1957 (Vict.), reg. 95A(7).

Decisions

GIBBS C.J. The respondents, Senior Constable Morris and Sergeant Martin, are members of the Victoria Police. Each was charged that on a day in March 1978, he did, contrary to reg.95A(7) of the Police Regulations 1957 (Vict.) as amended, disobey a lawful order in that he refused to answer questions when ordered by Inspector Holliday to do so during the course of an inquiry into the performance of his duties on 15 December 1977. The charges were heard by the Police Discipline Board constituted under the Police Regulation Act 1958 (Vict.) as amended, and the charge against each respondent was found to be proved. Appeals were taken to the Police Service Board but were dismissed. In each case the respondent then obtained from a Master of the Supreme Court of Victoria an order nisi to review the decision of the Police Service Board. The Full Court of the Supreme Court, by a majority (Starke and Marks JJ., Crockett J. dissenting), in each case made absolute the order nisi, set aside the decisions of the Police Service Board and the Police Discipline Board and dismissed the charge. The Police Service Board and Inspector Holliday now appeal to this Court from that decision.

The relevant facts are not in contest. On 15 December 1977 the respondents had been on a tour of duty in a police car in the Fitzroy area. They had submitted, as they were required to do, mobile patrol sheets or running sheets which were supposed to record events that occurred during the performance of their duties. The police authorities suspected that some entries in these running sheets were incorrect. For one thing, the information on the sheets did not correspond with information on tapes recorded by the police radio centre, according to which the respondents' police car had been called on numerous occasions over a period of four hours but did not respond to the calls. Complaints having been made against the respondents, Inspector Holliday interviewed Sergeant Martin on 14 March 1978 and Senior Constable Morris on 21 March 1978. In each case Inspector Holliday informed the respondent that he intended to question him in relation to the performance of his duties on the afternoon of 15 December and that the matters to which the questions related were of an administrative or disciplinary nature and did not involve any criminal charges. Each respondent asserted a right to refuse to answer questions and did not answer certain of them, although Inspector Holliday required him to do so. It is unnecessary to detail the interviews at length, but…