Former top cop quits as Victims of Crime Commissioner
Former police officer Greg Davies has quit his role as the Victims of Crime Commissioner after four years in the post.
Davies, who was a police officer for 37 years, was the state's first official advocate for victims of crime, when he took on the newly-created position in 2014.
Mr Davies, the former secretary of the police association, told 3AW Radio on Friday morning that his term was due to expire next March, and he had decided to quit ahead of a process of reform for victims' compensation programs.
"All good things must come to an end: new parliament, new government, new system that's being proposed for assisting in compensating victims of crime. My appointment was due to expire in March of next year so seemed to me fairly logical, rather than me start the process to shape the way the new system might look... probably better to make a clean break," he told 3AW radio.
The position of commissioner was created to improve services and systems within government departments, victims' service providers and the justice system to assist victims of crime.
Davies said he had hoped to do more while in the job.
"There are always frustrations. Every person who leaves any sort of employment, if you put the best into it, comes away with some frustration. You always like to think you could have achieve more," he said.
"If you look at the overall budget, the taxpayer money spent on law and order matters – so policing, corrections, the courts – we are talking several billions of dollars," he said.
"We are talking a lot of money, and this is not to lay the blame at anyone's feet, it has always been thus. But victims get, we are talking small change from the console of your car compared to what's spent on the broader picture. Those victims have very little assistance given to them in that grand picture."
Mr Davies, a former senior sergeant, was a vocal police advocate as the Police Association's secretary for five-and-a-half years before he retired in April, 2014 and was appointed by then Attorney-General Robert Clark to the commissioner role.