The NSW Police Force is still the primary investigator of complaints against itself and its own critical incidents. The lack of independent oversight has sparked serious concerns for the integrity of these investigations.
In 2016, the Baird government passed the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission Act 2016 (NSW). The Act established the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission (LECC) as a body combining “the then various avenues of independent police oversight into the one watchdog.” The LECC is responsible for detecting, investigating and exposing “serious misconduct and serious maladministration in the NSW Police Force and the NSW Crime Commission.”
However, the LECC often merely monitors the police as they investigate their own critical incidents – that is, incidents that involve officers causing “death or serious harm.”
Over 2022-23 financial year, 45 critical incident reports were received by the LECC but only 20 were finalised. Over the 12-month period, the LECC received a total of 4703 complaints – either directly lodged with the commission or submitted to the NSW Police itself. Once it receives a complaint, the LECC must decide whether to take over the investigation of a complaint or monitor the police as they investigate it. Due to underfunding, the LECC is forced to leave “the vast majority of complaints and allegations of police misconducts” to be handled by NSW Police itself, as NSW Greens MC Sue Higginson told parliament in May 2023.
In the early stages of the LECC’s inception in 2016, then NSW Police Minister Tony Grant even justified to Parliament that NSW Police “has some of the best investigators in the world” and “the serious nature of critical incidents, and the need to determine how and why a death or serious injury has occurred during a police operation” requires such “highly skilled personnel.”
Section 99(3) of the LECC Act allows the commission to force an inquiry into a complaint even if the NSW Police does not believe an investigation is necessary. Over the last financial year, the LECC integrity division “required the police commissioner to open up investigations into 24 police misconduct matters originally overlooked for inquiry.” Of these 24 matters, 15 findings were sustained overall. This reveals the problem with leaving complaints against NSW Police to be dealt with on their own.
The NSW Council for Civil Liberties echoes criticism of the LECC. In 2017, we observed that the commission’s “oversight capacity is seriously weakened” by the “restriction that only allows the LECC to observe critical incident interviews with the consent of the interviewee and the senior police investigator.” The lack of distinct separation between the NSW Police and its watchdog is gravely problematic.
The LECC’s failure to act after its damning inquiry into NSW Police’s use of strip searches in 2018 demonstrates its inability to hold the police force accountable. The LECC “uncovered serious misconduct,” finding that “strip searches were being misapplied in the community, especially at music festivals.” During the media frenzy around the strip search allegations, it was announced in late 2019 that Michael Adams, LECC chief commissioner, would not renew his contract after expired in January 2020, “due to the robust nature of the strip search inquiry.” This was the only consequence of the inquiry.
Later in the financial year, laws were passed to merge the “roles of integrity division commissioner and oversight division commissioner into the one position of LECC commissioner.” This “cost-saving measure” further reduced the power of the commission.
For complaints and critical incidents to be dealt with independently and effectively, the LECC must be fully resourced, says Higginson. Current budgetary restrictions will only cause issues to worsen in future.
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