ST. KILDA'S FINEST ARE UNLIKE THE REST

St Kilda detectives are so proud of their reputation they have had a
special tie made up.

The insignia is the scales of justice - on one side is a black crow with a
syringe in its mouth and the other a stick figure with a halo above its
head.

The crow represents the prostitutes of the area, the sainted figure is a
detective - and in his left hand he carries a sledgehammer.

The three-storey St Kilda police station in Chapel Street is like no other
in the state and some of Australia's best - and strangest - detectives have
worked there.

Some police love the district, while others never want to work in an area
where complaints can mar an officer's career. One policeman who worked
there said: "There was so much crime that you couldn't help catch crooks.
It was like shooting fish in a barrel."

He said some of the 90 police at the station would work on days off to
complete paperwork so they could spend as much duty time on the road during
duty hours. But some who have worked there have long been rumored to be "on
the take".

On Wednesday, internal investigators went to the station after receiving an
anonymous complaint from a police officer that alleged improper work
practices and questioned the number of detectives on sick leave.

It began as a routine inquiry but investigators found money, drugs and
illegal guns in the office. It is believed most of the guns were hidden in
the ceiling.

It will not be possible to establish how long the guns have been there
unless they can be identified through ballistics or police records.

It is not the first time firearms have been found in the ceiling of police
buildings. In 1998, contractors cleaning ceiling panels at the St Kilda
Road CIB complex found unregistered guns. A search uncovered nine handguns,
including several above the office of a policeman who is now a senior
officer.

A former detective said guns had been hidden in ceilings rather than
lockers because it was virtually impossible to identify which policeman had
handled them and therefore impossible to press charges.

The guns, known as "throw-aways", have sometimes been planted as false
evidence to justify charging known criminals with possessing illegal
firearms.

A few years ago, the St Kilda police station was rebuilt and contractors
demolished the adjoining police garage - known as the "Bat Cave". On the
roof they found hundreds of empty stubbies and - it was rumored - three
sticks of gelignite. When they knocked down the old police station a number
of unexplained "court exhibits" were found hidden in the wall cavities.

Some detectives have been known to keep small amounts of drugs to give to
addict informers for information on major crimes.

Police authorities have long been concerned at some of the activities
rumored to involve St Kilda police. They once banned officers belonging to
the specialist crime squads transferring to St Kilda in an attempt to break
the "macho culture" of the station.

They also brought in a new supervising sergeants to change work practices.

Other police acknowledge that their Chapel Street colleagues are different.

It has always been so. In the 1950s, gunman Norman Bradshaw refused to
drive through St Kilda because he was frightened of being beaten by the
local police.

In the 1980s, there was the scandal of the missing 40 grams of heroin
missing from a drug raid.

Former undercover policeman Lachlan McCulloch, a detective who exposed
police corruption, said working in St Kilda was a "fantastic experience".