Police boss Nixon hands in her badge

After almost eight years tackling corruption and crime, Victoria's police boss Christine Nixon handed in her badge on Friday at a tea party.

She said history would judge her and the job she did.
"Some people will agree with what's happened and there are others who will not," the
police chief commissioner told reporters.
"That's a matter for history to judge over time.
"It's been a great privilege to serve the people of Victoria ... all you can ask of
anybody is that they do the best that can do and I've done that."
The 55-year-old was Australia's first female police chief and tackled entrenched
corruption more fiercely than had ever happened before.
The most serious cases involved two underworld murders in which police involvement
was alleged - the murders of prosecution witness Terence Hodson and his wife
Christine, and the murder of male prostitute Shane Chartres-Abbott.
Ms Nixon set up taskforces to investigate those while a police watchdog, the Office
of Police Integrity, was established by the Victorian government.
Former drug squad detective Paul Dale, 39, was charged with Terence Hodson's murder
a fortnight ago, while Detective Sergeant Peter Lalor is accused of giving a hitman
Chartres-Abbott's address.
Ms Nixon, who also disbanded the armed offenders and drugs squads because of
corruption, said on Friday such events were disappointing.
"Obviously when we see officers let down the profession and have been involved in
corruption, they're always the disappointing parts," she said.
"I'm proud of the vast majority of things I've done, yes ... I guess altering the
culture of an organisation and changing it to be adaptive and capable with much
better leadership. I don't mean mine necessarily, I mean across the whole
organisation.
"We are a clearly less corrupt organisation than we have been.
"We have best practice in place to resist corruption occurring ... I've always said
corruption-resistant is the best that any police organisation will be."
Ms Nixon's relationship with some police officers was poor because of what they saw
as a move away from law and order to "soft" community policing, such as marching in
uniform during Melbourne's gay and lesbian "Midsumma" march.
Her relationship with the police union, the Police Association, deteriorated over
various factors such as a restructure of the crime department and a personality
clash with secretary Paul Mullett.
In late 2007, Mullett and former assistant commissioner Noel Ashby were named as
suspects - and later charged - over the leaking of confidential material associated
with the Chartres-Abbott murder investigation.
However Ms Nixon has been publicly popular and in her time crime dropped 24.5 per
cent, the road toll 26 per cent and the force's attrition rate was under three per
cent, Police and Emergency Services Minister Bob Cameron said.
She set up the Purana gangland taskforce, which has nabbed more than 230 offenders
and seized more than $44 million in property.