In 1971, New South Wales detective sergeant Philip Arantz discovered while working on a police computerization program that crime statistics had allegedly been systematically under-reported for years. He concluded the manipulation could conceal extensive police corruption and organized-crime involvement, potentially reaching senior leadership. After his concerns were dismissed internally, Arantz worked with journalist Basil Sweeney to publish official figures in The Sydney Morning Herald showing reported crime in 1971 was 75 percent higher than in 1970—an increase the account says could not be explained by a normal crime wave.
Police Commissioner Norman Allan, who led the force from 1962, was described as aware of or implicated in efforts to suppress the disclosures, though the source presents that involvement as an allegation. Arantz was suspended, subjected to a psychiatric assessment, and dishonourably discharged. The New South Wales government paid him $250,000 in 1985, and special legislation in 1989 provided notional reinstatement and publicly vindicated his claims. The episode became a landmark Australian whistleblower-retaliation case, later documented in Arantz’s 1993 book A Collusion of Powers.
