Commission finds prosecutions failed due to deficient police investigations

Friday 17 October 2025

Errors in police investigations attracted criticisms from judicial officers and led to charges being withdrawn or dismissed, a review by the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission has found.

The Commission’s review found that the majority of judicial officers’ criticisms related to the quality of the police investigation. Police also attracted criticism for misusing their powers or using unreasonable force.

The Commission made 7 recommendations to the NSW Police Force, and the NSW Police Force supports all of the Commission’s recommendations.

To conduct its review, the Commission considered 92 unsuccessful prosecutions from 2023 where a judicial officer criticised the police conduct of the case.  These failed prosecutions included domestic violence offences, common assault offences and firearm offences. The Commission’s review also considered how the NSW Police Force responded to these judicial criticisms and found gaps in police records.

A crucial part of police investigations involves gathering sufficient evidence to charge a person and then to prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt. The Commission found that errors in police investigations, including gaps in the brief of evidence, could result in the judicial officer dismissing a case, the prosecution failing and the judicial officer making criticisms of the conduct of police.

The Commission recommended that the NSW Police Force improve their processes for checking briefs of evidence before they are submitted to court. The Commission also recommended the NSW Police Force improve its record keeping of their responses to adverse judicial comments.

The Commission’s Review of NSW Police Force responses to failed prosecutions that include adverse comments made by judicial officers can be accessed on the Commission’s website here and a fact sheet about the report can be found here.

LECC Media

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