DNA MATCH KEY TO COPS' CACHE

POLICE may be asked to provide DNA samples in the hunt for officers who hid
guns, drugs and cash in the St Kilda Police station.

DNA scrapings will be sought if DNA traces are found on items secreted in
the ceiling of the Chapel St station. Fingerprints will be compared with
prints of police already kept on file.

Up to 86 police may be questioned a handful as suspects, most as potential
witnesses along with uniformed members of the station sharing a locker
room where some of the drugs and weapons were found.

Taskforce Embona detectives were yesterday warned by a senior officer to
behave or suffer the consequences.

A police spokesman said the seized items were still being analysed and an
audit at the station was continuing.

Two officers so far interviewed have denied all knowledge of the cache or
those responsible for secreting it in the ceiling of the station's CIU and
Embona taskforce offices.

More police are expected to be interviewed when forensic testing and the
audit is complete.

Police Minister Andre Haermeyer said despite the problems at St Kilda, the
community could still have faith it had a "very clean and decent force".

"I find this matter quite saddening and regrettable," he said.

"I have a great deal of confidence in the integrity of our police force, I
think the vast majority of our police officers are decent, honest officers."

Operation Cad began as a police ethical standards department investigation
into claims some detectives at St Kilda were lazy and often on sick leave.

But a raid by ESD detectives on Wednesday found a sawn-off shotgun, a
revolver, a pistol, an air pistol, two imitation pistols, numerous knives,
bags of suspected heroin, a bag of tablets, a bag of marijuana seeds,
credit cards, hi-fi equipment, about $200 cash and a steel baton.

Several serving and former police who contacted the Herald Sun welcomed the
raid, saying it was time bad cops were hunted out of the force.

Police sources said St Kilda was not an isolated incident, with similar
behavior problems and hidden caches of drugs and weapons at other stations.

One source said it was unlikely, however, that further raids would find any
evidence, with any illegal items likely to have been cleaned out by now.

St Kilda is renowned as one of Victoria's toughest and busiest police
stations, located in the seedy heart of Melbourne's drug and sex scenes.

In their work, detectives rub shoulders with the suburb's illegal
prostitutes, drug dealers and criminal underclass.

The St Kilda CIU insignia features the scales of justice with, on one side,
a black crow with a syringe in its mouth to signify the area's prostitutes,
and on the other a stick figure with a halo and a sledgehammer representing
the detectives.

Many police have enjoyed working there because there was never a shortage
of crooks to lock up and the comradeship among detectives was strong.

But the station has had a chequered past, with Assistant Commissioner
(ethical standards) Graeme McDonald admitting it has had a poor track
record over the years.

Criminals yesterday contacted the Herald Sun claiming to have been set up
or ripped off by corrupt police from different stations, and claiming drugs
had been planted or money or drugs taken from them and not recorded as
evidence.

In an unrelated incident, five officers at another suburban police station
have been investigated over poor management practices and claims of
harassment of other staff.

It is believed ESD has been investigating the matter since early this year.