JUST one in every 400 complaints against police for excessive force is investigated, according to Corruption and Crime Commission figures.
The State's CCC Inspector Chris Steytler told a parliamentary committee today that the findings were alarming.
Mr Steytler, the CCC's parliamentary inspector, is putting together a report on the use of excessive force by officers.
He said the vast majority of complaints made to police were sent back to police for investigation.
He said in the last two years there had been 381 complaints about excessive force, however only one was investigated by the CCC.
"I appreciate the commission has difficulty with funding and priorities ... but that's by any standard an alarming statistic,'' Mr Steytler said.
"In my experience, in some of those cases, at least three that I'm aware of have been serious cases. I think it's an unacceptable situation and if funding is the problem, the commission needs to be better funded.''
The parliamentary inspector warned the step would compromise the CCC's independence at a time where there was already concern that serious complaints against police weren't being independently investigated.
Mr Steytler spoke against a proposed shift in the CCC's role from investigating corruption in the public service to organised crime.
''(There will be an) inherent conflict of interest in detecting wrongdoing by police, because increasingly its core function becomes those of crime fighter,'' Mr Steytler said.
"It is that role requiring it to work closely with police that could potentially compromise the commission's independence.''
The parliamentary committee is specifically looking into the CCC's use of public hearings following the suicide of a witness last year.
Mr Steytler said it should be a rare for public interest in a matter to outweigh the potential for prejudice and privacy interests.
"Experience shows reputation can be far more damaged than rehabilitated,'' he said.
"It would be a triumph of optimism that (the CCC Act) provides an adequate mechanism for rehabilitation.''
He called for the CCC legislation to be amended so the commission could consider the reputation and safety of witnesses when deciding whether hearings should be public or private.
Mr Steytler criticised the CCC for taking an "all or nothing'' approach in the Smith's Beach investigation of government dealings involving politicians-turn-lobbyist Brian Burke and Julian Grill.
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