Understand what you can report

The LECC independently considers cases of serious misconduct and serious maladministration involving officers, former officers and employees of the:

• NSW Police Force
• NSW Crime Commission

The law says that, most of the time, the New South Wales Police Force or the NSW Crime Commission should manage any complaints that are made about their staff.

However, the LECC makes sure these agencies deal with misconduct appropriately.

This allows us to focus our own investigations on the cases where we think it is better if the Police or Crime Commission do not do the investigation.

We can decide which cases we will investigate and monitor.  Most complaints will not be investigated by the LECC.

This means that it is likely that we will refer your complaint to the NSW Police Force or NSW Crime Commission for their action.

We’ll then review the action they take to ensure that it’s done properly.

Serious misconduct 

Serious misconduct is conduct that could:

• be a serious offence (an offence punishable by imprisonment for 5 years or more)
• lead to serious disciplinary action (for example, termination of employment) or
• be a pattern of conduct that indicates systemic issues or corrupt conduct

For example, it could be when NSW Police Force or NSW Crime Commission employees:

• solicit or accept bribes
• pervert the course of justice (for example, by planting evidence at a crime scene or interfere with a brief of evidence)
• commit serious assaults
• release confidential police information to criminals
• improperly interfere in police investigations
• have improper relationships with criminals
• manufacture, cultivate or supply prohibited drugs

Serious maladministration  

Serious maladministration is defined as ‘conduct of a serious nature that is unreasonable, unjust, oppressive or improperly discriminatory, or arises wholly or in part from improper motives’.

‘Agency maladministration’ is conduct by officers of the NSW Police Force or NSW Crime Commission that is:

• unlawful, or
• not unlawful, but procedurally unfair, unreasonable, unjust, oppressive  or discriminatory

‘Officer maladministration’ is conduct by a NSW Police Force officer or administrative employee or an officer of the NSW Crime Commission that although not unlawful, is procedurally unfair.

Types of allegations and issues we won’t investigate or monitor

We won't investigation:

• customer service issues by the NSW Police
• internal performance management issues (for example, officers who claim sick leave when not they’re not ill)
• the outcome of traffic or court decisions
• isues that are about law enforcement agencies in other states or territories

If you’d like information about who you can contact you can call LawAccess NSW on 1300 888 529

We also don’tdeal with allegations about:

• Federal parliamentarians, departments, agencies or the judiciary
• the private sector — unless NSW Police Force or NSW Crime Commission officers are involved

What we can and cannot do