Victoria Police officers investigating colleagues and former bosses over the Lawyer X scandal are unlikely to restore public confidence in the force, a former special prosecutor believes.
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Doug Drummond QC was the special prosecutor who helped convict former Queensland police chief Terry Lewis of corruption and forgery after the state's 1989 Fitzgerald inquiry.
He has suggested a similar process for Victoria in the wake of the royal commission into snitching gangland barrister Nicola Gobbo.
Mr Drummond says the High Court ignited a crisis of public confidence in the force that was sufficient to prompt an inquiry into their use of Ms Gobbo as an informer.
"If Victoria police control the investigation and preparations of briefs for the (Director of Public Prosecutions) they will effectively determine who if any police,will be prosecuted," he wrote in a submission released on Tuesday.
"How can the public have confidence now that Victoria Police will be diligent in investigating and preparing prosecution briefs against their own members?"
Anti-corruption watchdog IBAC has been suggested as an alternative investigatory body, but its own commissioner Robert Redlich told The Australian last month that it would not be possible with current funding levels.
Instead Mr Drummond said a special prosecutor - reporting directly to parliament rather than the government - should be appointed.
Commissioner Margaret McMurdo's final report is due to be handed down on November 30.
While counsel assisting her inquiry have recommended that she find a number of current and former Victoria Police officers and Ms Gobbo may have committed crimes, she will not recommend charges.
Ms McMurdo said it was for prosecutors to make decisions on charges, and that public discussions could unfairly prejudice future trials and "will be detrimental to the reputations of those named".
In his submission Mr Drummond also questioned the independence of Victoria's Office of Public Prosecutions.
He said the state government had "benefited politically from various recent actions by Victoria Police" including lockdown enforcement, and decision against prosecution in the Red Shirt scandal.
But the state's top prosecutor Kerri Judd QC issued a statement disputing Mr Drummond's suggestion, saying prosecutorial decisions are based on policy criteria.
"I strongly reject the suggestion by Mr Drummond QC that such decisions are in any way influenced by political considerations," she said.
Australian Associated Press
