'Crime Intelligence classified documents to avoid investigations'

McBride is the first witness to detail the apparent capture of law enforcement agencies.

He was appointed in 2014 and told the commission throughout his tenure there were many cases of corruption in Crime Intelligence which were not prosecuted.

"Any request for information from Crime Intelligence is generally met with resistance. And very often Crime Intelligence would resort to suspicious classification of documents in contravention of the policy on minimum information security standards, which forbids the use of classification to cover up maladministration or criminal conduct."

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McBride used the example of an investigation into the abuse of state resources, where a senior officer made use of a police vehicle without authorisation.

When Ipid investigators requested the vehicle's logbook, it was immediately classified.

"Even before my appointment to Ipid, there is evidence and history of cases where there has been rampant abuse and a sense of impunity in the exercise of the use of the secret service account of Crime Intelligence. That also goes towards the classification. So there is what is termed limited or assurance or no assurance given to how funds are spent, whether there is value for money, whether the funds have been used correctly or abused fraudulently, it's not transparent at all."

Another example given by McBride was a case, which was initially handled by the Hawks, where the prosecution of a former divisional commissioner of Crime Intelligence had to be stopped midway because there was a refusal to declassify documents.

According to McBride, the very same documents had been used by Crime Intelligence in a disciplinary hearing.