Jamie Chalker’s time as Police Commissioner has been defined by the aftermath of Kumanjayi Walker’s shooting death, which raised serious questions about his integrity, including the hiding of key evidence in the Zach Rolfe murder trial and questions of the integrity and morale of the force under his leadership.
In the wake of his as yet to be explained disappearance, this series examines his chaotic reign as top cop, bringing together all the failings, the lies, the alleged conspiracies, and mystifying public utterances. Today, we explore the golfing trip in the days before the Constable Zach Rolfe not guilty verdict and the verdict fallout, including his bizarre press conference, the suppressed Pollock coronial report, the doubling police attrition rate and more.
READ: Tarnished Brass: Police Commissioner Jamie Chalker’s career saved from a housing wreck
READ: Tarnished Brass II: ‘An erosion of trust, respect, integrity, and the lack of compassion…’
READ: Tarnished Brass V: ICAC announces investigation into Rolfe murder charge
READ: Tarnished Brass VI: Vote of no confidence in Police Commissioner Jamie Chalker
READ: Tarnished Brass VIII: Police pursued Rolfe murder charge against DPP witness advice
Wednesday, January 19, 2022
The union representing the Territory’s cops labelled the NT Police executive’s move to transfer Maningrida’s top cop out of the community before he retired “shameful treatment” of a respected officer with more than two decades with the force.
Sergeant Kim Chambers lost a court battle in the Supreme Court to stop the transfer out of the community before he retired in July.
Sgt Chambers had run the Maningrida police station for more than 10 years and wanted to end his policing career in the community. But the police brass ordered him to leave the community to serve out his days in Darwin.
The court ruled the executive had the power to order transfers and rejected Sgt Chambers’ bid to remain in Maningrida.
NT Police Association president Paul McCue said a respected officer with more than 20 years of service should not have been treated like that by the executive.
Mr McCue added that the decision to transfer Sgt Chambers lacked common sense, stating “this is not how veterans of the police force should be treated” and pointing out that Sgt Chambers had run the station when it was below 50 per cent of what staffing levels should have been.
“Now to say thanks, the NT Police refuse to allow him to stay a further five months until he can leave proudly and with dignity,” he said.
NT Police told media: “The transfer and application of his skills and experience to less experienced staff in Darwin is welcomed and we look forward to Sgt Chambers using his ability to further supervise and develop those staff in his new location and role when he commences.”
Sunday, March 6, 2022
Official police records confirm officers who refused COVID vaccine reinstated after legal action
Official police staff records published in the NT Police Gazette confirmed the top brass were obligated to rescind the forced retirements of three officers who had allegedly refused the COVID-19 vaccine, but police sources still expected the officers to lose their jobs after their internal appeals had been heard.
The NT Independent had previously revealed that an officer who had taken Supreme Court action against Mr Chalker for forcibly retiring him on medical grounds before his appeal could be heard had been successful, which had ramifications for those who had been forcibly retired for not getting vaccinated.
The police executive had breached the Police Administration Act by not allowing the appeal to be heard before retiring the officer, which was the same process followed by Mr Chalker to stand down those who were not vaccinated.
Wednesday, March 9, 2022
Jamie Chalker had been off playing golf at the Australian Police Golf Championships in South Australia while one of his members, Constable Zach Rolfe’s murder trial was coming to an end, and while police and fire services made contingency plans for potential violence stemming from the verdict, sources had told the NT Independent.
Five police sources told the NT Independent Mr Chalker was at the golf tournament, expressing outrage and disbelief he would choose to go interstate at such a critical time.
Constable Zach Rolfe was on trial in Darwin charged with murder for the 2019 shooting death of Kumanjayi Walker in Yuendumu, while he and another officer were trying to arrest him. One of the most high profile trials in Northern Territory history was due to finish at the end of that week.
Mr Chalker cut his golfing trip short after the NT Independent exposed where he was. He stayed in South Australia despite his officers shooting another man in Palmerston that week in a separate incident.
Friday, March 12, 2022
NT Police Constable Zach Rolfe was found not guilty of murder in the shooting death of Yuendumu teen Kumanjayi Walker.
In a unanimous decision, the jury also found Mr Rolfe not guilty of the two alternative charges of manslaughter and engaging in a violent act causing death.
Mr Rolfe had shot Mr Walker three times during an attempted arrest in November 2019, that also involved Mr Walker stabbing Mr Rolfe in the shoulder with a pair of scissors.
It was the second and third shots that formed the Crown case against Mr Rolfe, with the prosecution arguing they were unjustified.
The defence team argued Mr Rolfe was acting appropriately to protect himself and his partner during the struggle.
The trial, which started on February 7, concluded on Thursday with Justice John Burns briefing jurors before their deliberations.
The jury returned their verdict at 12:30pm on Friday.
Outside court, Mr Rolfe said the verdict was “the right decision to make” but did not take questions, including whether he intends to return to duty.
“A lot of people are hurting today, Kumanjayi’s family and his community … and I’m going to leave this space for them,” he said.
Friday, March 12, 2022
Analysis: The six-minute-and-33-second statement that should cost the Police Commissioner his job
After Constable Rolfe was found not guilty by a Supreme Court jury of the murder of Mr Walker, Mr Chalker gave a bizarre six minute and 33 second press conference that afternoon where he did not take questions from the media.
There were some important words Mr Chalker did not say in his press conference, that rendered his statement meaningless.
Some of those words were: Zach Rolfe; Kumanjayi Walker; police shooting; murder trial; died; Yuendumu; Aboriginal community; not guilty.
If you did not know what the presser was about going in, you would have finished the bizarre six minutes, 33 seconds, knowing even less.
“Since November of 2019, this matter has lingered, it has impacted all corners of the Northern Territory and today a verdict was delivered,” Mr Chalker started.
“The NT Police force is a representative of this community. We are the ones charged to act without fear or favour, and a matter proceeded to the Supreme Court for a decision, and that decision has now been made.”
It continued as a disjointed stream-of-consciousness statement almost alarmingly slow, by a man wrestling with the basics of the English language – including grammar, syntax, word selection and meaning – and being pinned to the canvas by it immediately.
Monday, March 14, 2022
Jamie Chalker refused to stand down, issuing an extraordinary written public statement amid growing calls for his resignation, stating that “we will continue to work on relationships with all Territorians” and defending the decision to charge Constable Zach Rolfe with murder.
Mr Chalker issued the statement just after 5pm on a Monday, following a day in which the union representing police suggested there was political interference around the decision to charge Constable Rolfe, and allegations made in a radio interview by Constable Rolfe’s father accusing Mr Chalker of acting corruptly by concealing a report into the shooting death of Kumanjayi Walker.
The Commissioner defended the police investigation process that saw Constable Rolfe charged just four days after the shooting, stating that “the integrity of the criminal judicial process had to be maintained once charges were laid” and that the decision to charge was made with the assistance of the Office of the Director for Public Prosecutions
Richard Rolfe said Mr Chalker acted corruptly by allegedly hiding a police report into the death of Mr Walker from the court in the committal hearing for the police officer’s murder charge, and said the NT’s top cop needed to resign or be sacked.
Mr Rolfe was interviewed on Mix 104.9 by Katie Woolf, three days after a jury found Constable Rolfe not guilty on three charges, including murder, for the 2019 shooting death of Mr Walker in Yuendumu, during an attempted arrest.
He said he thought Mr Chalker’s behaviour was corrupt in withholding evidence from both the defence and the Director of Public Prosecutions.
“The Pollock report was well known, and to fail to provide that to the court, I believe is a clear example of corrupt behavior by the police commissioner,” he said.
“I am only using that (term corrupt) because the previous ICAC Commissioner Ken Fleming spoke out just days after the shooting. He spoke about corrupt behavior and called that out, and using his definition of corrupt, I think I’m quite correct in drawing the same analogy with the police commissioner.”
Wednesday, March 16, 2022
Chalker ends police awards partnership with Rotary Club after Zach Rolfe nominated
Mr Chalker ended the NT Police’s 30-year relationship with the Rotary Club of Darwin following Constable Zach Rolfe’s nomination for the club’s Police Officer of the Year Award, Sky News reported.
The NT Independent understood the move to end the association with Rotary contradicts Mr Chalker’s own 10-year strategy plan to “develop and maintain diverse and productive partnerships” with community groups.
Mr Chalker wrote to the club earlier this year to withdraw the NT Police’s support for the award, which had been in run in partnership with the club since 1991, which sees members of the public nominate three officers every year for the honour.
Constable Rolfe’s name was put forward to the club last year by hundreds of submissions while he was still facing a murder charge for the shooting death of Yuendumu man Kumanjayi Walker, which a jury acquitted him of last week.
Rotary president Paul Simon told Sky News there was no consultation with the club before Mr Chalker’s letter informing them the police would no longer support the award.
Thursday, March 17, 2022
Where is the Pollock report into the death of Kumanjayi Walker?
Jamie Chalker refused to say whether the original police coronial reports into the shooting death of Kumanjayi Walker by Constable Rolfe would be presented at the upcoming coronial inquiry, or if police were investigating how and why their existence was suppressed from the prosecutor and the Rolfe defence team.
An investigation into the 2019 death in Yuendumu – during an attempted arrest by Immediate Response Team members Constable Rolfe and then-constable Adam Eberl – was undertaken by Coronial Senior Investigating Officer Detective Superintendent Scott Pollock.
But it in one court reference it was described as seven draft reports, with sources telling the NT Independent that Supt Pollock’s investigation was suspended by Assistant Commissioner Nick Anticich in November 2020.
He had been seconded to the Coroner’s office to create the report.
One police source told the NT Independent Mr Chalker called Supt Pollock into his office by himself and asked him to change the contents of the report.
It was said by the source Mr Chalker then transferred Supt Pollock to the police response to COVID-19, and he was then transferred again before he went on leave.
His report was later altered by Commander David Proctor, who replaced Supt Pollock.
Thursday, March 17, 2022
Zach Rolfe placed on indefinite leave, told to call ‘well-being team’ if he has personal issues
The NT Independent reported it remained unclear if or when Constable Zach Rolfe would be allowed to return to work following his acquittal the week before, with the officer being issued a direction to take indefinite leave after being accused of 25 serious breaches of discipline by the top brass which could result in his sacking, according to a letter seen by the NT Independent.
The NT Independent revealed on the Saturday the NT Police executive had notified the union just hours after he was cleared of murder by a Supreme Court jury on the Friday that it intended to issue new disciplinary notices on him, which would officially continue his suspension from service.
However, the letter from Deputy Commissioner Murray Smalpage, in absentia of Professional Services Command head Bruce Porter, who went on sudden leave, directed Constable Rolfe to take leave rather than be suspended, which meant he would lose annual leave entitlements instead of being paid a normal wage on suspension.
The letter sent to Constable Rolfe by Mr Smalpage, carried the Friday’s date, and also banned him from entering a Northern Territory Police, Fire or Emergency Service facility, except in an emergency.
Tuesday, March 22, 2022
Official figures showed one NT Police officer left the force every two days between late November 2021 to mid-February 2022, keeping the attrition rate roughly double what it was in the 2019-2020 financial year, a period the NT Police Association referred to as having “one of the greatest resignation rates of police officers in NT history”.
The latest figures, which cover attrition for an 84-day period from November 26 to February 18, show 41 officers left, and included 11 officers who retired.
Remaining officers have previously been critical of the executive for allowing experienced cops to leave the force and not having enough experience left to train the new graduates on the job.
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