Victoria's Police Chief Commissioner Shane Patton says retrospective legislation passed by state parliament this week should quash any future legal challenges arising from an administrative error which resulted in officers being incorrectly sworn-in to the force.
On Monday, before the retrospective legislation was passed, charges against a Victorian man were struck out after a magistrate found the involvement of officers who were not correctly sworn in rendered them invalid.
Earlier this month it was revealed more than 1,000 police officers weren't properly sworn-in between 2014 and 2021 due to a technicality in legislation.
It led to concerns that legal cases could be jeopardised because police officers who were invalidly sworn had not held the legal powers to carry out their duties.
'No fears' bungle will affect court cases
But Mr Patton said the "oversight" was being retrospectively fixed by legislation that was passed by parliament this week.
He said he had "no fears" that the issue would affect many cases.
"The retrospective legislation will put beyond doubt any issues on any of these cases whatsoever and we have had only a couple, a small number of cases where people have sought to use this administrative issue to have a matter thrown out," Mr Patton told ABC Radio Melbourne.
He said the man in this week's case had been on remand for nearly six months — longer than any custodial sentence that was likely to be imposed.
The magistrate dropped charges relating to weapons, theft, drugs, driving and damaging an emergency vehicle.
"We had sought to adjourn the matter so that we could further argue the case," Mr Patton said.
"The magistrate has made comment to the effect that the charges really for the amount of time he's spent in jail he isn't going to get any more so to adjourn it wouldn't have been fair," Mr Patton said.
He said police were now looking at the case to determine if there should be an appeal or not.
Swiftly introduced retrospective laws
Meanwhile, the state's Attorney-General Jaclyn Symes said the legislation to amend administration of the police force's swearing in of officers passed parliament on Tuesday "in record time" and with bipartisan support.
She said she only knew of one case linked to a wrongly sworn-in officer.
"I'm only aware of the one case, that's been reported today, in relation to the decision that the magistrate has made and obviously that is a decision that could be subject to an appeal," she said.
"The parliament and indeed the government acted swiftly upon advice that there were issues with the police administration of police swearing in of officers.
"That bill ... is intended to retrospectively remedy any of those issues and, of course, as with all pieces of legislation, potentially subjected to the courts' action."
Ms Symes said the government had "based this remedy on the best legal advice obtainable in the state to demonstrate that we are in a position to retrospectively remedy those issues which we would be confident would stand up".
"But of course, like any law, it's open to lawyers to take a challenge to the court and that may indeed happen," she said.
Police let the issue 'fester', lawyer says
Melbourne police misconduct lawyer Jeremy King said it remained unclear how the issue would play out in the courts.
"I think it is a huge unknown as to how exactly all of this is going to play out, how courts are going to deal with this legislation because it is simply unheard of," he said.
"This has never really been dealt with before in Australia and certainly not in Victoria, and so there are huge question marks over how this is going to play out … and what further legal avenues there might be available to people in order to challenge the potentially unlawful actions of police officers.
"I think a magistrate or judge is going to take a dim view of them [police] trying to oppose an application trying to release that person knowing that they were potentially unlawfully imprisoned.
Mr King said police had been on notice about the issue for 12 months but had "allowed the problem to fester" and allowed some people to languish in jail unnecessarily.
"Ultimately, it'll be up to magistrates and judges to interpret the law, to look at what has happened and also to take into account the conduct of Victoria Police because it is relevant that Victoria Police knew about this back in February of 2021 and have sat on their hands for 12 months," he said.
"It's affected thousands of cases, and particularly all those cases that have run since February 2021 when Victoria Police became aware of it and then didn't do anything about it.
"Those cases in particular are quite infected because as I say, Victoria Police had that direct knowledge of the issue but didn't take proper steps to address it."
Mr King said the issue should be looked at by parliament and an independent inquiry may also be needed.
