Phillip Arantz

Philip Arantz (born 1929) was a Detective Sergeant in the New South Wales Police.

In the 1970s he was involved in a long-running and highly publicised battle with the NSW government after his dismissal from the Police Service, and Arantz claimed that he had been victimised for his whistle-blowing actions, which had exposed systematic police corruption.

In 1971, while working on a computerisation program, the computer expert discovered that the NSW police service had been systematically under-reporting crime statistics for years. The obvious inference of this revelation was that police were trying to conceal corruption, which allegedly extended up to the Police Commissioner himself, and the widespread police involvement in organised crime.

Arantz took his allegations to senior police but they were dismissed out of hand. Eventually Arantz, now recognised as one of Australia's pioneer "whistle-blowers", realised that Norman Allan (who had been Commissioner since 1962) was at least aware of the scheme, if not directly involved in it, and that he wanted to suppress Arantz's revelations.

The frustrated Arantz created history when, through the agency of journalist Basil Sweeney, he had official figures published in The Sydney Morning Herald showing reported crime in 1971 was 75 per cent above the figures for 1970. The difference was so huge that it could not be explained by a crime wave.

An enraged Commissioner Allan began a vicious campaign to destroy Arantz's credibility. As a result, Arantz was suspended, forced to undergo a psychiatric assessment, and, finally, dishonourably discharged from the force; it took him years to clear his name. Meanwhile, both Commissioner Allan and New South Wales Premier Robert Askin had retired (respectively in 1972 and 1975), avoiding the taint from the scandal. It wasn't until 1989 that Arantz and his claims were finally vindicated, by which point Askin and Allan were long since dead.

In 1985, the Wran Government paid him $250,000. He was finally cleared by special legislation, allowing him notional reinstatement in 1989. With his victory behind him, Mr Arantz retired to Dunedoo in mid-western NSW.

In 1993, Arantz went on to write a book about his experiences, entitled A Collusion of Powers.

Sydney Morning Herald, 5 March 1998

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