APPROPRIATELY, John Edlund will be accorded a full police funeral this Friday. The former detective sergeant, who campaigned relentlessly against police corruption, would have appreciated the honour, his friend and former colleague Matt Casey said yesterday.
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“He would have been really excited about that,” he told the
“And it makes a hell of a statement that Assistant Commissioner Nick Kaldas is delivering the valedictory.”
Former Detective Sergeant Edlund passed away at Goulburn Base Hospital on Monday night, aged 65, after a two-year battle with cancer.
He was surrounded by family. Mr Casey described him as the “consummate police officer.”
“Honesty was his outstanding quality,” he said.
“He never let pragmatism be his refuge. He stuck to his principles regardless of the cost.”
Mr Edlund served 27 years with NSW Police, having enlisted in 1969 in Sydney. He rose quickly through the ranks, becoming a sergeant at Campsie and then detective sergeant after transferring to Goulburn. But he fell out with the hierarchy after acting on suspicions about police corruption.
While working undercover on Operation Seville, a drug operation on several district properties exploring mafia links, he raised concerns that a senior officer was involved in cultivation. He and another officer hit internal hurdles and reprisals but never gave up in their quest.
Independent MP John Hatton took up their cause with gusto, culminating in the much wider ranging Wood Royal Commission in 1997.
Mr Edlund’s story is well documented. Over the years he has detailed a long list of reprisals and alleged manipulation of reports to justify his suspension from Police College duties in 1997.
Last November he told the
“I’d never been suspended before. It’s usually a prelude to the sack,” he said.
“I was a career policeman and had a reputation as being honest and effective. I’d been awarded a valour medal, received a commendation from the Commissioner for my investigation into a triple murder and commendations for other investigations.
“But I was marched off the Academy grounds without so much as them asking a question.”
He was medically discharged in December, 1998 suffering stress. But his campaign to clear his name never stopped. “It was an enormously difficult time,” Mr Casey said.
“But he never compromised his principles. He was set upon because he refused to back away.”
Mr Edlund believed it came at the expense of his health. In 2000, he was diagnosed with cancer. Though unrelated, about the same time he had an eye removed. The cancer returned two years ago, spreading to his lungs and eventually his bones.
Though in a palliative state, last November Mr Edlund wanted to tell the
“It appears to me that a number of the matters involved should have been handled in a more timely, balanced and appropriate manner,” the letter stated.
“I acknowledge and sincerely regret that these experiences have caused great distress to you and your family, both during the period in which they were occurring and in the nine years since that time.”
Mr Edlund described it as a “sweet event” in his life but would have preferred an apology straight from the Commissioner’s mouth. Mr Hatton went further. He said Mr Edlund was a national hero.
“Presenting John with this and an apology in a marching off parade is the least they can do. It’s not too much to ask,” Mr Hatton said.
“It’s an important public statement of attitude that the Commissioner can take against corruption.”
Mr Hatton will again have his say at Mr Edlund’s wake on Friday. The full police honours will not be lost on his family and many friends. Mr Edlund is survived by his wife Sue, children Mark, Wendy and Clare, their respective partners Kristy, Glen and Zac, grandson Jesse, mother Norma and stepfather Lars of Goulburn.
