In the days after Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was shot down over Ukraine, Stephen Dametto grappled with the scale of the tragedy. By then a seasoned organised crime and counter-terrorism investigator with the Australian Federal Police, Dametto had spent years preparing for worst-case scenarios.
Even still, this was uncharted territory; 298 passengers and crew had been killed, 38 of them Australian citizens and residents. As the gravity of the situation became clearer, Dametto, the AFP’s most senior officer deployed to Kyiv to respond to the disaster, wrestled with questions about the path forward and how anyone could fathom such loss.
The four months Dametto spent posted in Ukraine to oversee the AFP’s response to the downing of the Boeing 777 – and a subsequent posting in The Hague working as a senior investigating officer on the multi-country probe into the tragedy – is a point of pride across almost 30 years of policing.
But his time in the country and his contribution to Operation Arew is one part – significant as it was – of a varied policing career that has led to Dametto’s appointment to one of the state’s most powerful law enforcement positions: NSW crime commissioner.
“My whole career has been, more or less, targeting organised crime and counter-terrorism, and when this job came out it just seemed like a perfect fit for me,” Dametto says.
With coercive powers that extend beyond the reach of state and federal police, the Crime Commission can garner information its law enforcement partners can’t.
For anyone compelled to appear in one of the commission’s secretive hearings, answering questions is a non-negotiable, regardless of whether the information they share could incriminate them. Refuse and they risk prison.
Last financial year, the commission, led by former boss Michael Barnes from 2020 until Dametto’s appointment early this year, compelled dozens of witnesses to appear across 55 hearings. Barnes’ tenure is regarded among law enforcement officials as a period of success for the commission.
What’s discussed in the hearings is confidential. Only a handful of people – Dametto, a counsel assisting him, the witness, their lawyer, and, occasionally, an investigating police officer – are allowed in the room during a hearing.
“It’s quite a strong power, making people answer questions,” Dametto says.
Like matters under the scrutiny of the Independent Commission Against Corruption, who and what the Crime Commission investigates is closely held. Who is compelled to give evidence is guarded even more tightly.
The Crime Commission has long faced criticism for its secretive operations – a perception Dametto hopes to shift. Like any other public office, the Crime Commission must be transparent and accountable to maintain the trust of the NSW taxpayer, he says.
“The danger is, I think, if we abuse that process, or if the process is abused … then the public will lose trust in it.”
Still, he says, the work the commission does must stay confidential to preserve the integrity of its investigations. “Hearings are very secretive for a reason,” he says.
“The NSW parliament has given us these special powers and we need to really focus on those to make a difference.”NSW Crime Commissioner Stephen Dametto
Maximising that unique power by holding more hearings is one of Dametto’s top priorities, as is increasing the number of crime types the commission investigates.
“The NSW parliament has given us these special powers and we need to really focus on those to make a difference,” he says.
While the commission has traditionally focused on organised crime, Dametto hopes to use the agency’s powers to target offences such as child abuse and exploitation, including by stripping offenders’ assets.
“We need to punch above our weight in many ways,” he says.
In the last financial year, the Crime Commission restrained a record $160 million in assets it says was the proceeds of crime, including luxury properties, cash, cars, jewellery, clothing and other goods. Its previous record was just over $50 million worth of seizures in a single year. Since July, it has restrained almost $150 million.
A large portion of the commission’s seizures in the past two years have been of assets linked to the Penthouse Syndicate, a group that has allegedly defrauded the country’s major banks of more than $250 million with the help of corrupt finance industry insiders. To date, the commission has restrained almost $100 million worth of assets, including several properties police say are crucial to the group’s frauds.
That investigation, led by NSW Police’s Financial Crimes Squad under Strike Force Myddleton, is an example of the commission’s successful partnerships, Dametto says.
The Crime Commission’s role in terrorism investigations will probably only increase during Dametto’s tenure at the helm.
For almost a third of his career he has worked in counter-terrorism. From a year-long secondment to the Metropolitan Police in the United Kingdom, Dametto says he picked up methods that formed the basis of some of the work he would lead in Australia, particularly in terrorism financing. With those skills, he helped establish the AFP’s Terrorism Financing Investigations Unit, since renamed the Joint Threat Financing Group and run in partnership with the country’s financial crimes watchdog, the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre.
The commission, alongside the AFP, NSW Police and the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, comprises the NSW Joint Counter Terrorism Team (JCTT) – investigating the Bondi Beach terror attack. Ensuring it plays a key role in responding to major incidents like the December 14 massacre is crucial, Dametto says.
Dametto never expected an attack of such scale in Australia. But an increase in “lone wolf-type” terrorist attacks in the past decade, compared with bigger, planned attacks has shifted the focus for counter-terrorism investigators.
“It just shows how much harm can be caused just by two individuals,” Dametto says.
“How are they being radicalised? Where is their thinking coming from?”
Dametto’s goal is using his powerful position to keep the community safe.
“If I play a small role in that, then that lets me sleep at night quite well.”
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