Victoria Police must improve its overall integrity culture despite following through on most suggested reforms, an oversight watchdog says.
In a report tabled in the Victorian parliament on Tuesday, the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission analysed the force's response to 104 of its recommendations from January 2016 to March 2022.
It found the force accepted 92 per cent of its recommendations during that time, partially accepted four per cent and rejected three per cent.
The commission said it remained concerned about ongoing systemic and organisational risks associated with use-of-force reporting, conflicts of interest, declarable associations, note-taking and statement-making.
"There is work for Victoria Police to do to improve its overall integrity culture to ensure officers are appropriately reporting and investigating misconduct," the report said.
"IBAC is also seeking legislative change to enable the Chief Commissioner of Police to lay disciplinary charges upon receiving a recommendation to do so from IBAC, rather than requiring them to first conduct another inquiry."
The force is not required to accept, implement, or publicly report on the watchdog's recommendations made under section 159 of the IBAC Act.
But it must report to the watchdog if it does not plan to adopt a recommendation and explain why.
Most recommendations were adopted within two years but Victoria Police was usually late when reporting back on their implementation.
In November 2020, the commission introduced a process for managing overdue responses, including sending a reminder a month before the due date.
The average lateness for responses subsequently dwindled from 129 days in 2020 to 30 days in 2021.
In September, Victoria's Yoorrook Justice Commission formally recommended establishing an independent police oversight authority separate to IBAC.
The Indigenous truth-telling inquiry noted roughly 98 per cent of police complaints were investigated by the force compared to three per cent by the commission.
In response to IBAC's latest report, the Greens renewed their call for the government to create a purpose-built independent police oversight authority.
"An independent police ombudsman would help clean up the culture of Victoria Police by providing more scrutiny and independent investigations," the party's justice spokeswoman Katherine Copsey said.
