THE worst may yet be to come for the Queensland Police Service, with six more potentially damning investigations into dishonest behaviour under way.

One of the more scandalous allegations raised by a Crime and Misconduct Commission report was a case involving officers who fabricated an audio tape as proof of a bogus payment to an informant.

The setup was said to have taken place at a West End cafe, but was later found to have been recorded in the police headquarters carpark.

Members of the Armed Robbery Unit also allegedly forged signatures of informants, let a prisoner walk out of his jail cell and misappropriated money.
The report released by Crime and Misconduct Commission chairman Robert Needham yesterday implicated 25 officers ranging from constables to an inspector in multiple allegations of police misconduct.

The allegations relate to the use and management of police informants, who were given benefits, including cash, unsupervised leave from jail and phone calls in return for confessions and evidence.

Mr Needham said he decided to make the report public because he did not have faith in the police service to accurately inform the officers of the findings.

"It's left to the rumour mill to spread it around and we know what happens with the rumour mill.

"The rumour gets changed to suit those who are spreading the rumours," Mr Needham said.

Although the report was immediately dismissed by the Queensland Police Union as "130-pages of allegations", Police Commissioner Bob Atkinson said he was disappointed, shocked and saddened by the findings.

"Careers have been lost and lives ruined by this. It's a very sad case for the Queensland Police Service," Mr Atkinson said.

Premier Anna Bligh also described the report as "shocking".

But she added that it demonstrated that the institutions put in place after the Fitzgerald inquiry to root out crooked behaviour worked.

At the centre of the misconduct allegations exposed by the report is convicted murderer and police informant Lee Owen Henderson.

Henderson is currently serving a life sentence in Maryborough Correctional Centre.

Despite being exposed as manipulating police for his own gain 16 years ago, Henderson again succeeded in obtaining benefits from police in exchange for information in the period from 2001 to 2005, the report suggests.

His "rewards" included a $5000 payment, unsupervised leave from jail, phone calls and access to confidential police information.

Mr Needham said police got nothing in return.

"We didn't discover any information that Mr Henderson gave that was of real value to the police. Most of the time what he was telling them was utter rubbish," he said.

Operation Capri also uncovered dozens of payments to police informants that failed to comply with QPS procedures, and found evidence of forgeries, false receipts and a fabricated audio recording.

Mr Atkinson said the QPS was taking steps to address the problems exposed by the report, including a complete review of all training and development programs to ensure an emphasis on corruption prevention.

He said arrangements were also being made so every officer in the state would receive a copy of the CMC report.

Of the 25 officers implicated in the report, three have been charged with offences, including perjury and giving false evidence, one was dismissed, six resigned or retired, and 11 were given "managerial guidance".

Two cases are still being dealt with and no action was taken against two others.

Mr Needham said it was possible that similar conduct was still occurring in other pockets of the police service.

At least "half a dozen" investigations were ongoing into police misconduct, he said.

"There's a lot of police officers apart from those 25 who must have known that misconduct was occurring and did nothing about it and it occurred at Cleveland, it occurred in one of the squads within the State Operations Command at Police Headquarters and it occurred in Rockhampton," Mr Needham said.

The investigations were looking at allegations of the "same level" as those discovered in Capri, he said.

"These are focusing on individuals but some of them have connections, geographically."

Civil Liberties Council vice-president Terry O'Gorman said the report was the harshest rebuke the CMC had ever given the QPS.