SAPOL Cat Fight: Cop Commissioner Grant Stevens Attacks Union Leader Wade Burns’ Role in Failed Policing Model

SAPOL’s Battle of the Bozos is heating up again.

In one corner, we have Grant Stevens, whose tenure as South Australia police commissioner has been an abject failure marred by police brutality, soaring crime rates, and record levels of staff attrition.

In the other corner, we have Wade Burns, son of former police commissioner Gary Burns and current police union head. Burn’s career highlights include being demoted after sexually assaulting a female colleague at an Adelaide nightclub in 2017.

In an attempt to deflect attention from his total failure as a police commissioner and his stubborn championing of the failed District Policing Model, Grant Stevens is now trying to throw Burns under the bus.

Stevens told the media that Burns – one of the biggest and most outspoken critics of the force’s controversial policing model – was actually a “key architect” behind its creation.

Stevens has implied Burns is a hypocrite while hitting back at the union boss’s latest offensive against the DPM.

PASA has for several years been vocal in its criticism of the DPM – which was phased in between 2018 and 2020 – saying it has been physically and mentally detrimental to officers, and that it was causing members to leave the force in droves.

It says the model has led to less frontline officers covering larger areas, leading to longer response times and overworked members.

Stevens in April this year announced an independent review of the model would be undertaken, conceding the force could no longer “sit and wait” for additional officers.

SAPOL had previously acknowledged the DPM needed more officers for it to operate effectively, however the organisation has struggled to recruit and retain officers for years.

Failed Police Commissioner Grant Stevens.

On Friday, Burns raised concerns the review appeared to be designed to “protect a broken system”.

“The terms of reference are narrow, vague, and appear deliberately designed to protect a broken system rather than fix it,” he said.

Burns said members had been calling for change since the DPM was instigated but had been ignored.

“So who could blame them for expecting this review to be a whitewash?” he said.

Stevens said the union president had not been transparent with the public about the “crucial role he played in designing and implementing the model”.

“As Mr Burns has withheld this information from members and the public for sometime now, it is only reasonable, considering his efforts to undermine the review, that SAPOL provides this transparency,” he said.

Police Association president Wade Burns.

Stevens said the DPM was the result of a 2014 review launched by Burns’ father and then-police commissioner Gary Burns.

“Post the previous Commissioner’s retirement, the then Chief Inspector (Wade) Burns, was the Deputy Program Manager of the Organisational Reform Program and key architect of the current District Policing Model,” he said.

“As recently as November 2021, Mr Wade Burns was claiming credit for the DPM and has referred to having received a Certificate Of Merit for the successful implementation of the model he was instrumental in designing.”

Stevens said if Burns “genuinely thinks that those responsible for ‘defending’ the DPM should be held accountable, he must include himself in that group”.

“The suggestion that the DPM review will be a “whitewash” with “predetermined outcomes” is outrageous and rejected,” he said.

Even though it’s true.

Which is also true.

“It’s no secret to anyone that I worked on the Organizational Reform Program – ten years ago,” he said.

“I know exactly how the model was supposed to work and how it has evolved since then.

“And I can say without hesitation: what we’re left with today is a dysfunctional mess that bears zero resemblance to what was originally intended.”

The review of the DPM will be carried out by former senior police executive in New Zealand Police Mark Evans, of BDO.

He will be directly engaging with staff over the coming months to inform the review.

So taxpayers will foot the bill for an expensive review of what anyone with half-a-brain can already see is a dismal failure.

Meanwhile, Grant Stevens is trying to deflect blame and attention from himself instead of manning up, admitting the DPM is a disaster, and implementing a more effective model.