Law and disorder

Heightening concern about the watchdog's conduct, the OPI is also believed to have targeted a senior adviser to Police Minister Peter Ryan, who attempted to convince Sir Ken to withdraw his resignation so he could continue pressing his concerns about transparency and accountability. The OPI has now taken the unusual step of confirming the existence of the investigation, with director Michael Strong saying it is ''of public interest'' and being conducted ''in good faith and on appropriate grounds''.

The OPI deemed the allegations against Sir Ken at least serious enough to activate rarely used emergency powers to monitor his activities without a warrant, meaning it did not apply to a federal judge or an Administrative Appeals Tribunal member.

In turn, Ombudsman George Brouwer decided that concerns about the OPI's heavy-handed use of powers were serious enough to launch his own investigation into its conduct.

As if the situation were not murky enough, it has now emerged that Sir Ken met Baillieu's chief of staff, Michael Kapel, in February to discuss the operation of Victoria Police under Overland. Sir Ken reportedly wrote in an email after the meeting that the government was ''on to Overland''.

Presumably by that he meant Kapel was sufficiently convinced following the meeting that action against Overland was likely.

News of the meeting - which curiously took place at the policeman's Melbourne home - has served to further temper perceptions that the government remains deeply divided on the Overland issue, and is flailing in implementing its law-and-order agenda.

Ryan, who has handled himself in public almost flawlessly, was furious about the meeting, revealing he had declined the offer of similar meeting after being approached by an unknown associate of Sir Ken's.

''I have been asked to meet with him [Sir Ken] but I have declined and I have done so on the basis that as a matter of first principles I just don't think that is the right thing to do,'' Ryan said.

Yet according to Baillieu, Kapel's behaviour was entirely appropriate, even though the meeting took place without his, Ryan's or Overland's knowledge.

''Michael was contacted by Sir Ken Jones and in good faith accepted having a meeting with him,'' Baillieu says. ''He meets with people all the time, I have confidence in him. Given the context, I would like to be able to say to you that I had known about it, but I didn't know about it. When it was explained to me I understood it was done in good faith.''

The different interpretations of the meeting between the government's two most senior men could not be more stark. Just how deep the cabinet divisions over the Overland issue are is open to speculation.

Some Liberal members of cabinet are believed to have vehemently argued that the best strategy would have been to sack Overland, who is viewed by some as a puppet of the former Brumby government.

As they see it, the government had the opportunity to do this earlier this year, instead of allowing the situation to sour further, undermining the government's law-and-order credentials.

Despite such concerns, The Age understands that Ryan - with the backing of Baillieu - convinced his Liberal cabinet colleagues that Overland should not be sacked.

There were also concerns that it would have been a ''bad look'' to sack the police chief, effectively pre-empting the findings of an inquiry into senior police command headed by Jack Rush, QC, which won't be delivered to Parliament for another year.

There were also concerns that sacking Overland, whose contract does not end for another three years, could result in an unfair-dismissal claim and expensive payout (although in reality the Police Regulation Act allows the government to dismiss chief commissioners by making a recommendation to the governor). It was also felt such a move would be badly received by the public.

Instead, cabinet decided on the middle ground: an embarrassing public reprimand of Overland. Baillieu emerged the following week to declare that although he retained confidence in Overland, he was ''not happy'' and wanted him to fix a raft of long-standing problems ''in a speedy manner''.

Those problems include a failure of police to communicate child protection concerns, a $100 million cost blowout for a replacement crime database, and flaws in the existing database, which failed to identify parole violators.

One man who understands better than most what Sir Ken may be going through is former Victoria Police deputy commissioner Noel Ashby.

He says he had a similarly difficult relationship with his boss - former chief commissioner Christine Nixon, whom he blamed for helping orchestrate the botched OPI probe against him. He was also a rival of Overland's for Nixon's job. (Ashby's career was ruined by an OPI investigation in 2007 that ended in a humiliating failure last year when perjury allegations were thrown out of the Supreme Court.)

Ashby told The Age it was not uncommon for the ambitious men and women at the top echelons of Victoria Police to cultivate senior government contacts in a bid to further their careers.

''It's normal, it's no crime to meet people,'' he says. ''But I think in the circumstances to meet him [Kapel] at his [Sir Ken's] house was unwise … it gives it more of a clandestine appearance.

'Whether it is or not doesn't matter… the appearance can led to suspicion and we know what happens in Victoria Police when those suspicions emerge. You get your phones bugged and your wife's phone gets bugged.''

'Ashby says he used telephone intercepts when he was in charge of serious crime but had often struggled to get judicial authority to use them despite the risk that a crime was about to be committed, including when a recidivist rapist was about to strike again in 1997.

The rapist was arrested before he attacked but Ashby says it illustrates how the culture of phone-tapping has changed, with all 424 police and OPI applications to tap telephones approved last financial year.

''It used to be a last resort,'' he says. ''It seems now it's become a first resort.''

Police Association secretary Greg Davies, who wants the OPI immediately disbanded, has continued to support Sir Ken since his unexpected dismissal last month, saying the former deputy commissioner has been treated appallingly.

But he told The Age on Sunday that it was time for the former deputy commissioner to end his ''dignified silence'' and to start addressing the growing level of intrigue surrounding him and his final weeks at Victoria Police.

Such is the level of animosity between the Police Association and Overland that Davies last week refused to share a stage with the Chief Commissioner at a tribute function for John Forbes, the former chairman of the Blue Ribbon Foundation.

Davies has called for a royal commission in the wake of Sir Ken's dismissal to root out leadership problems in the force and restore public confidence.

Ask Ryan about the police blow-up and he'll tell you that when you chip away all the rumour and innuendo, there is little in the way of actual substance. In fact, he says, the involvement of the OPI and the Ombudsman show the system is working as it should.

This may be so, but some are saying there are serious problems the government must confront before this issue becomes emblematic of a government paralysed by indecision.