Victoria Police has begun investigations into officers identified in a damning intelligence report, who had repeatedly engaged in ‘predatory behaviour’ towards vulnerable people.

Among other things, the Independent Broad-Based Anti-Corruption Commission (IBAC) report identified 114 instances of predatory behaviour of police officers against vulnerable people – including victims of family violence or sexual assault, people with a disability, or young people.

The behaviour involved a misuse of authority to instigate an intimate personal or sexual relationship, or both, with a vulnerable person they came across in the course of their duties.

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It could also include instances of sexual assault, stalking, harassment or grooming.

The report found it was “almost certainly under-reported”.

This was influenced by a “power imbalance” between the officer and the victims, feelings of shame and trauma, fear of retaliation or not being believed, and a perceived lack of credibility of the victims themselves – who were, in part, selected due to this fact.

The IBAC report found many offending officers had been allowed to continue working with Victoria Police, only to reoffend.

There complaints of predatory behaviour were recorded between January 2004 and June 2014, and 142 victimisations.

The report found the behaviour was likely to be part of a pattern “requiring closer examination of officers’ complaint histories”.

In one case, an officer was accepted into the Police Academy, despite being rejected on previous occasions due to concerns for his suitability in the force.

During his career, numerous allegations were made against him, including obsessive and stalking behaviours towards other female officers and vulnerable females met in the course of his duties. The allegations, some of which were taken to court, did not see him dismissed.

He eventually resigned while under investigation for criminal offences related to a sexual relationship that had begun with a 17-year-old female he had arrested.

In another complaint, an officer was alleged to have sexually assaulted two intoxicated women he had offered to drive home while on-duty, which added to prior complaints of his sexualised behaviour.

He was also found to have used a police database to conduct a “disproportionate number of checks” on female members of the public. He later resigned while under investigation and charges were not pursued.

Victoria Police is now monitoring and investigating a number of serving officers identified by IBAC as repeat offenders of predatory behaviour.

“Due to the vulnerability of the victims in such cases, it is highly likely that predatory behaviour is under-reported,” IBAC commissioner Stephen O’Bryan said.

“Our research shows that complaints about predatory behaviour involving vulnerable community members are twice as likely to be substantiated than other types of police complaints.”

– with ABC