Drink-driving police officer in Dezi Freeman search handed job back

A Victoria Police officer who was sacked for drink driving on duty while searching for Dezi Freeman has been handed his job back. The sergeant was driving an unmarked police car with guns inside on Hickory Road in Berwick when he rear-ended another vehicle just before 7am on September 10 last year.

He blew a 0.07 breath test following the collision, telling Victoria's police disciplinary board he had drunk two "very strong" bourbon and cokes about three hours earlier "out of desperation to get some sleep". The officer was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder following almost 20 years in a specialist unit responding to major incidents.

The officer told the board he struggled to sleep in the weeks after learning Freeman had murdered two officers on August 26. "For a police officer to drive a police vehicle while affected by alcohol is particularly serious conduct," the decision published by the Police Registration and Services Board said.

The board found that the officer's psychological evaluations and character references from senior colleagues did not amount to an addiction to alcohol. However, it found that the move to terminate the officer was "harsh" because it did not factor in the officer's PTSD, extreme fatigue and "excessive" workload following the double murder in the town of Porepunkah.

One superintendent from the officer's former specialist unit said he had "taken full ownership and responsibility for this incident … at no time has he attempted to shift or deflect blame". "I believe his behaviour was uncharacteristic and driven by a health crisis rather than a lack of professional integrity," he said.

Instead of being dismissed, the officer will be permanently removed from his former specialist unit, placed in an operational training team and ordered to donate $2,500 to Police Legacy — a charity that supports families of fallen officers.