The inquiry into Tasmania Police's responses to allegations of officer misconduct heard evidence from sexual assault and family violence advocates on Thursday.
Policy officer Elise Whitmore from Laurel House, a community sexual assault support service, told the inquiry that victim-survivors were concerned about the 'interconnected relationships' that police had with each other, both inside and outside work.
'Their concerns were not only that they wouldn't be believed, but that there may be retaliation from police in relation to other aspects of their life,' she said.
Laurel House advocacy manager Kaity Graham said there was a perceived culture of police banding together to protect their own, which Laurel House called a 'blue code of silence'.
'When the alleged perpetrator is a police officer, the response must address the power, relationships and conflict of interest that can affect a victim-survivor's confidence in coming forward,' she said.
Bree Klerck, chief executive officer of the Tasmanian Family and Sexual Violence Alliance (TFSVA), agreed, noting that Tasmania is a small and deeply networked jurisdiction.
'In this context it is difficult for Tasmania Police to investigate serious allegations involving its own officers,' she said.
Multiple members of the inquiry raised the ongoing impacts of the actions of paedophile police officer Paul Reynolds, who died by suicide in 2018 while being investigated for multiple child sexual abuse offences and was given a full police funeral with honour guard in Launceston.
Nicole Asquith, a policy and research officer at TFSVA, said the subsequent Weiss Report focused on sexual violence but did not properly address family violence, which she called 'the bigger elephant in the room'.