South Australia’s Ombudsman Wayne Lines has written to the ICAC to voice his disagreement with police handling complaints about police.

“I do not agree with the Police Ombudsman's arrangement of having complaints about police misconduct investigated by police officers,” Mr Lines said in his submission to ICAC’s discussion paper on its Review of Legislative Schemes.

“I understand that the absence of investigators within Police Ombudsman is partly by design and largely in response to inadequate funding.

“The lack of resources may well be the result of Police Ombudsman's office being too small due to a very limited jurisdiction leading to an inability to achieve an ‘economy of scale’.”

He resourcing could be improved by abolishing the Police Ombudsman's office and incorporating the investigation of police misconduct into ICAC's functions.

“My research of arrangements interstate reveals that there is no other separate Police Ombudsman,” he said.

“All States (apart from Victoria) give either the Ombudsman alone or the Ombudsman and the relevant anti-corruption body jurisdiction over police complaints.

“Victoria requires such complaints to be dealt with by the IBAC, not the Ombudsman.

“In my view, investigation of police misconduct has an anti-corruption 'flavour' to it as it relates to the ethics and honesty of law enforcement personnel and sits well within ICAC's core purpose.”

“I am also of the view, that once a complaint is being dealt with by ICAC, the Commissioner of Police should be subject to the ICAC's findings and recommendations and not have a power of veto,” he added.