The forces of resistance: how the Lawyer X scandal illustrates the challenge of holding Victoria Police accountable

<p dir="ltr">Although the events surrounding Victoria Police’s recruitment and use of Nicola Gobbo as a human source—and the array of political and legal responses to her subsequent exposure—have been described as unprecedented, they have received little academic attention. This article offers the first systematic overview of these responses and their evolution. It is argued that despite the impetus for change in the face of systemic misconduct, these responses have ultimately been diluted to the point of inefficacy and are in fact only one more rotation in a cycle that illustrates the force of the status quo. That the risk of such police misconduct has not been meaningfully reduced despite the extensive efforts to consider and address these issues points, this article argues, to a deep inertia and unyielding resistance to police accountability.</p>