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1989ArticlesBuriedCarCauseClassCurrently ServingDeceased PoliceDriverFacialFuneralGenderGPSGraveIn UniformIncompleteLocationMaleMonumentNSWOf eventOf graveOn DutyPhotosStateVehicle accidentWall of RemembranceYearYes

Risto Vic BALTOSKI

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Risto Vic BALTOSKI

AKA Risco BALTOSKI
Late of ?

New South Wales Police Force

NSW Redfern Police Academy Class # 148

Regd. #  17072

 

Rank: Commenced Training at Redfern Police Academy on Tuesday 17 June 1975 ( aged  20 years, 2 months, 19 days )

Probationary Constable – appointed Monday 25 August 1975 ( aged 20 years, 4 months, 27 days )

Constable – appointed 25 August 1976

Detective – appointed ? ? ? ( YES )

Senior Constable – appointed 25 August 1984

 

Final Rank = Detective Senior Constable

 

Stations: ?, 21 Division, 13 Division, Homicide Squad, Secondment to NCA – Adelaide South Aust. – Death

 

Service: From  17 June 1975   to   2 January 1989 = 13 years, 6 months, 16 days Service

Time in Retirement:  0

Age at Retirement:  33 years, 9 months, 4 days

 

Awards:  No find on It’s An Honour

Risto Vic BALTOSKI Risto BALTOSKI Riscoe BALTOSKI

Born: Tuesday 29 March 1955

Died on: Monday 2 January 1989

Age: 33 years, 9 months, 4 days

Cause: MVA – Driver – crossed to wrong side of road ( possibly fatigue )

Event location: Sturt Highway, about 68 kilometres, west of Hay, NSW

Event date: Monday  2 January 1989 about 2pm ( CAT )

 

Funeral date: ? ? 1989

Funeral location: ?

 

Wake location: ?

 

Funeral Parlour: ?

 

Buried at: Pinegrove Memorial Park, Kington St, Minchinbury, NSW

Garden of Memories 1 / 43 ( M1 – 565 J )

GPS:  Lat: – 33.79090    Long:  150.84749

 

Memorial located at:  Memorial Wall plaque – Deniliquin Police Station – 2018

 

Risto Vic BALTOSKI INSCRIPTION:BALTOSKIRisto29.3.1955 - 2.1.1989Love is the bridgethat links our heartskeeping us closewhen we are apart. Risto Vic BALTOSKI INSCRIPTION:BALTOSKIRisto29.3.1955 - 2.1.1989Love is the bridgethat links our heartskeeping us closewhen we are apart.

RISTO IS mentioned on the National Police Wall of Remembrance – Canberra

RISTO IS mentioned on the NSW Police Wall of Remembrance – Sydney


Grave location:


FURTHER INFORMATION IS NEEDED ABOUT THIS PERSON, THEIR LIFE, THEIR CAREER AND THEIR DEATH.

PLEASE SEND PHOTOS AND INFORMATION TO Cal


May they forever Rest In Peace


On 2 January, 1989 Detective Baltoski was travelling to the National Crime Authority Offices in Adelaide in company of Mick KEELTY who was later to become the Australian Federal Police Commissioner.

About 2pm as he was driving along the Sturt Highway about 68 kilometres west of Hay when the vehicle crossed to the incorrect side of the roadway and collided head-on with another vehicle.

The exact cause of the accident was not determined.

As a result of the collision Detective Baltoski sustained severe head and internal injuries and died before he reached the Hay District Hospital.

 

The senior constable was born in 1955 and joined the New South Wales Police Force on 17 June, 1975.

At the time of his death he was on secondment to the National Crime Authority. Prior to that, he had been attached to the Homicide Squad.

SourceBeyond Courage


Class 148. Sworn In at Redfern Police Academy on Monday 25 August 1975
Class 148. Sworn In at Redfern Police Academy on Monday 25 August 1975
Former NSWPF Cadets in Secondary Training Class 148.            24 May 1976 – 2 July 1976

 

21 Division 01 - Trainees
21 Division  – Trainees.  Risto is in the middle row, 3rd from the right.

 

Campsie Detectives: Risto is in the front row, 1st on the left.
Campsie Detectives: Risto is in the front row, 1st on the left.

 


2/1/2019, Deniliquin Times.  Eight honoured on police memorial wall’ –

Seven former local police officers and a former police chaplain were honoured during a police reunion in Deniliquin.
They were the first to be added to the police memorial wall at the new Deniliquin police station.
Honoured were
Constable Charles Chapman (died 5/3/1866),
Senior Const J Morrison (19/1/1898),
Senior Const Thomas Smith (19/4/1910),
Superintendent Henry Grugeon (10/1/1911),
Sergeant George Thomas Whiteley (25/3/1931),
Detective Senior Const Risto Vic Baltoski (2/1/1989) and
Senior Const Jennifer Louise Edgerton (August 2015) and

Rev David Bond.

 

HARRY GRUGEON


Deniliquin Police Station Memorial Wall

The Memorial Wall commemorates former local police officers and a former police chaplain who lost their lives in the line of duty. An additional plaque is to be added to the memorial in memory of Amy Christian who was the station’s cleaner for 26 years.

Seven former local police officers and one former police chaplain were remembered as part of a reunion in Deniliquin at the weekend. They were the first to be added to a police memorial wall installed at the front of the new Deniliquin Police Station in Charlotte St.

The wall was officially dedicated on Saturday morning in front of a crowd of about 100 people, blessed by Police Chaplain Reverend Wayne Sheean, whose predecessor Rev David Bond was remembered as part of the ceremony.

Officers honoured on the wall include Booligal’s Constable Charles Chapman (died March 1866), Moama’s Senior Const J Morrison (January 1898), Euston’s Senior Const Thomas Smith (April 1910), Deniliquin’s Superintendent Henry Grugeon (January 1911), Berrigan’s Sergeant 3rd Class George Thomas Whitely (March 1931), Detective Senior Const Risto Vic Baltoski from the National Crime Authority (January 1989) and Moama’s Senior Const Jennifer Louise Edgerton (August 2015).

Also officiating at the dedication ceremony were Deniliquin Local Area Commander Superintendent Paul Condon and Edward River Council Mayor Norm Brennan.

In attendance were many former Deniliquin-based police officers and their partners, who were in Deniliquin for the reunion dinner at the Deniliquin Golf Club on Saturday evening.

Family members of some of the officers memorialised also attended, including the daughter-in-law and grandchildren of Sgt Whitely, who died from injuries during a fire at Berrigan’s Momalong Hotel on March 25, 1931.

He and another officer were helping to control onlookers outside the hotel when a gas cylinder exploded and he was struck in the face by shrapnel.

Supt Condon said the idea of the memorial wall was to highlight the connection between police and community. ‘‘The purpose is to join the local community’s history with the local police history as our police are part of the community,’’ Supt Condon said. ‘‘I encourage the local community to visit the memorial, which has now been fitted with lights to highlight the memorial at night.

‘‘It is a credit to the local community and police, as well as Brunker Fabrication who have done a great job constructing the memorial.’’

Reunion co-organiser Roger Smith, a retired inspector, said reunion participants agreed on a ninth plaque for the memorial wall during the weekend — Amy Christian — who he said was the station’s cleaner for 26 years.

Supt Condon said the memorial dedication was followed by a tour of the new Deniliquin Police Station, which replaced the station which was constructed from 1961 and officially opened in 1965.
Denilquin Pastoral Times, 20 February 2018. 

Location:  405 Charlotte St, Deniliquin Police Station, NSW

Dedication date:  Saturday 17 February 2018

SourceMonument Australia


 

Keelty on the beat

IT SAYS something of Mick Keelty’s humble origins and his modest ambitions as a young man that when his uncle – a NSW copper – urged him to join the police force, he chose the constabulary of the sleepy national capital.

The son of a butcher who grew up in a large Irish-Catholic family in a two-bedroom fibro home in Parramatta, Keelty says “going to Canberra as one of six kids and being the first one to leave home … it was almost like an adventure for a 19-year-old”.

Keelty was a diligent student, by all accounts, and settled well. But a long five years in the ACT Accidents Squad was no portent of things to come, nor a posting soon after to lecture at Goulburn’s police academy.

The rise of the Australian Federal Police Commissioner, who this month begins a second five-year term overseeing a law enforcement empire of global reach, can be traced to the 1980s when the fresh detective cracked one of the seminal cases of that halcyon era of corrupt cops, colourful racing identities and underworld kingpins.

Keelty had been seconded to the National Crime Authority, which was still grappling with the fallout from the death of the anti-drugs campaigner Donald Mackay, the Italian Mafia and its extensive cannabis production.

Barry Moyes was the high-profile head of South Australia’s drug squad. A long investigation led Keelty down an intriguing path – his sources were saying a large dope operation was flourishing under the protection of Moyes. It was stunning information.

“He was involved in a crop at the time and distributing drugs from the drug safe,” Keelty says.

“Nobody believed that South Australia had a problem. You heard about police corruption in NSW and Victoria but no one had heard of it existing in South Australia.”

After exhaustive police surveillance of Moyes, a magistrate approved a warrant and Keelty searched the drug tsar’s office while Moyes looked on. Seized drugs that were supposed to have been destroyed were found in Moyes’s personal safe.

Moyes protested his innocence and invented a novel alibi – he was consorting with known Mafia figures because he was, secretly, infiltrating organised crime and couldn’t tell his possibly corrupt colleagues.

The alibi flew, at least until Keelty visited a heroin addict on Bondi Road who turned informant during a quiet negotiation in a room splattered with vomit.

Moyes confessed all at trial and Keelty’s star rose, an ascent confirmed soon after when he led the team that put the underworld kingpin Lenny McPherson behind bars.

Keelty says he always loved the “thrill of the hunt” and his partner during those days, NSW policeman Mike Edgtton, says Keelty “worked with anyone from everywhere. He drew the best out of everyone.”

“The Italian Mafia case was a big one. It was a triumph but there was also tragedy.”

Keelty’s partner, Risto Baltoski, was killed after a head-on collision on the baking Hay plain after one of many long-haul trips the two men made to South Australia.

The young detective cradled his partner in 40-degree heat during the long wait for the ambulance.

Mick thought [Baltoski] was OK but when he headed back to town he heard on his police radio that Risto had died. It was terrible. He was one of his best mates,” Edgtton says.

A few big nights on the drink was the traditional remedy and Keelty still won’t talk about the incident but, as Commissioner, he has ploughed resources into trauma counselling. The AFP has won awards for its family-friendly polices, and Keelty’s close personal protection officer is a woman.

The first commissioner to emerge from within its ranks, Keelty is immensely popular within the AFP and has an unprecedented public profile.

During his tenure, the force’s annual budget has grown from $385 million in 2001 to $1.1 billion, while staffing levels have doubled to 5200. Along the way, the force has taken over jobs that used to be the domain of the National Crime Authority, the Australian Secret Intelligence Service, the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation and, arguably, the military.

His fame, of course, was cemented in 2004 by the “Keelty affair”, his frank remark to the journalist Laurie Oakes that the Iraq war would have motivated the Madrid terrorist bombings.

The Prime Minister, John Howard, was mortified and Keelty considered his future as he was condemned as an al-Qaeda propagandist by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Alexander Downer, and misinformed by the chief of the Defence Force, General Peter Cosgrove.

Cosgrove remains a mate, but the saga is instructive. It betrays Keelty’s abiding interest in the social and economic factors that underpin crimes of all descriptions and his recognition of the limits of law enforcement.

“I’ve always thought about what puts a person in the position they are in,” Keelty says. “If you understand the reasons why they have committed the crime, you have a better chance of solving the crime.”

In the context of terrorism, that means combating the “radicalisation” of young Muslims.

Note it is Keelty who is advocating what he calls the “deprogramming” of Islamic extremists if they are placed under house arrest under controversial new powers.

For drugs, it’s about social support, harm minimisation and going offshore to attack suppliers at source. Pedophilia – the subject of large AFP investigations – abhors and intrigues him.

“Pedophilia is really to me an enigmatic crime,” he says. “[Pedophiles are often] people who are otherwise intellectually very capable. They are not from the lower socioeconomic group.”

As the AFP launched its wide investigation into internet child porn, Keelty took the extraordinary step of counselling his officers that they could be excused from the job if they found the material involved offensive, or tempting.

“Nothing can guarantee me that the people I would put into the investigation of that crime may or may not have those tendencies,” he recalls.

“One of the things I announced to the organisation was that anybody that was unhappy or anyone who was not certain whether they could investigate that sort of crime ought to be encouraged to say it up front.”

One former officer who has worked with Keelty says his casual, almost guileless manner often masks the depth and intelligence of the Commissioner.

But the officer questioned Keelty’s uncommon focus on “socioeconomic causes of crime”.

“It can erode the effect of policing, and it can complicate things,” the former staffer says.

With more than 30 postings around the world, including the first and only permanent Western policing presence in China and Vietnam, the internationalisation of the AFP has been perhaps the defining feature of Keelty’s reign.

As well as extensive co-operation with overseas police forces on transnational crime, including terrorism, the AFP has sent large contingents as peacekeepers to East Timor, the Solomon Islands and, briefly, Papua New Guinea.

Keelty has been the consummate diplomat, helped by his fascination for different cultures and his drive to tackle crime globally and bring down the big players in illegal and illicit activity.

His deference to Jakarta during the East Timor crisis – he always visited the Indonesian capital before heading on to Dili – laid the groundwork for the quick co-operation in the wake of the Bali bombings.

It didn’t hurt that Keelty had studied with Indonesia’s General I Made Pastika in Canberra, and helped him with his homework, during the mid-1990s.

“There have been a lot of on-the-ground operational, and public perception, problems that have come out of working with overseas forces,” says one former AFP staffer.

“The Bali nine is a classic example. So is Schapelle Corby.”

There is little doubt that in the court of public opinion, the AFP’s reputation took a beating in these drug mule cases.

The AFP had been tipped off about some of the young men and women who were part of the Bali nine but Keelty says they had eight names, of whom just five travelled.

He could not have tipped off the youngsters – as many have argued the AFP should have – because the whole investigation would have collapsed, he says.

The Indonesians had every right to arrest the Australian couriers. “It was their sovereign land,” Keelty says.

As for the fuss surrounding Corby, Keelty is blunt and unsympathetic.

“If Schapelle Corby wasn’t a very attractive young lady, the reaction might have been quite different.”

Consider it from the Indonesian side, he adds. Protesting that the cannabis in Corby’s bodyboard bag had been planted was the “universal excuse” of drug traffickers and would open the floodgates if accepted with no hard evidence.

Even so, Keelty remains popular. He is probably the only prominent security figure regarded highly by both the Prime Minister and Australia’s Muslim community.

Ali Roude, the vice-president of the Islamic Council of NSW, credits Keelty for a “great relationship” between the AFP and the Muslim community.

“He has a good grasp of issues. He is the first federal police commissioner to have taken a leadership role in initiating contact with Australian Muslim community,” Roude says.

Certainly, Keelty won’t join the conga line of politicians decrying multiculturalism and uttering dark warnings about the imposition of sharia law.

Noting the Protestant versus Catholic schism of his childhood, not to mention the Italians he and his mates branded “wogs”, Keelty says of the tensions between Muslims and non-Muslims that they are worrying but not necessarily new.

“We have been down this road before, if we think it through,” he says.

“I think there is great credit in trying to develop a very tolerant society and a very understanding society. It can be our competitive difference over the rest of the world.”

YES, COMMISSIONER

On Schapelle Corby “Every courier, whether they are coming into Australia or whether they are going into Vietnam, going into Thailand, will say the drugs are not mine. It’s the universal excuse … If Schapelle Corby wasn’t a very attractive young lady, the reaction might have been quite different.”

On the AFP abroad “The justice systems are very different to ours. There are issues of corruption, nepotism and wantok [tribal allegiance]. You have to work with and around those systems [in a way] that preserves your integrity.”

On policing “You can get yourself into a routine where you are locking up the same people over and over again and you really don’t believe you are making a difference.”

On multiculturalism “I was brought up in the western suburbs of Sydney in the days when we used to call the local Italian snack bar the wog shop. But all immigrants have given us a rich culture … and what a strength that is.”

On terrorism “We have got to deal with this radicalisation process somewhere along the line. If we don’t, I think we risk having the problem for a lot longer than we might otherwise have it.”

Keelty on the beat


 

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