NSW police watchdog found conflict of interest forms in 32 per cent of officer domestic violence cases

The New South Wales police watchdog has found that officers filled in the mandatory conflict of interest form in fewer than a third of complaint investigations into their own colleagues over domestic and family violence. The Law Enforcement Conduct Commission published its Review of NSW Police Force investigations of police officers involved in domestic and family violence incidents on 22 April 2026. It found the form, known as a P1226, was applicable in 66 of 67 complaint investigations and present in 21 of them, or 32 per cent. Firearms risk assessments, the second mandatory safeguard, appeared in 16 of the 40 investigations where they were required, or 40 per cent.

The review covered every complaint investigation into an officer involved domestic or family violence incident recorded between 25 March 2024 and 24 March 2025: 67 investigations concerning 56 officers. The NSW Police Force declined 20 of those complaints at triage under section 132 of the Police Act 1990 and investigated the remaining 47.

Of the 47 investigations, 44 had been finalised when the Commission reported. Investigations into 13 officers, covering 34 allegations, resulted in sustained findings. Investigations into 34 officers, covering 70 allegations, were not sustained. Management action for the 13 ranged from counselling and warning notices to dismissal. Two officers were removed under section 181D of the Police Act, the provision allowing the Commissioner of Police to remove an officer in whom confidence has been lost. Eight officers had already left the force before any management action was taken, three of them by medical discharge.

Criminal outcomes were thinner than the complaint volume suggests. The Commission found the force charged 15 of the 56 officers with 145 domestic violence offences. Eight of those officers were found not guilty, four were convicted and sentenced, and three matters remained before the courts at publication.

The Commission also found a pattern of repeat contact. Twenty three of the 56 officers had previously been investigated over domestic and family violence, and eight of those earlier investigations produced sustained findings. The Commission's own fact sheet, published the same week, puts that figure at 24 rather than 23. The two documents also differ on departures: the executive summary says 13 of the officers investigated no longer work for the force, while the body of the report says 15. Neither document explains the gap.

The review is a follow up. In June 2023 the Commission examined 470 complaint investigations and made 13 recommendations, seven of them about officers who were themselves involved in domestic violence. The force supported five of the seven. It did not support the recommendation that such investigations be transferred to another command, arguing instead that the P1226 form would manage the conflict. The 2026 review found that form largely missing from the records it examined.

Three new recommendations follow. Where both parties to a domestic violence incident are current or former officers, the matter should go to an independent command. Triage officers should complete the interim risk management section of the triage form, or record why they did not. And the force should run mandatory, targeted and repeated audits of database access by officers accused of domestic violence offences.

The profile of the 56 officers is set out in the report: 49 were male, 37 held the rank of senior constable, 33 were the subject of an apprehended domestic violence order, and 13 of the victims were themselves NSW police officers.

The force has not stood still. On 29 September 2025 it replaced its 2018 standard operating procedures. Under the 2025 version, every officer involved domestic violence incident is reviewed within 72 hours by the region commander at assistant commissioner rank, the region professional standards manager and the involved officer's commander, with the meeting recorded on the complaint system IAPro. The Commission acknowledged that record keeping may have improved since then, while noting that its own sample predates the change.

Reporting of the review has not settled on the same numbers. Australian Associated Press copy carried by the Canberra Times and the Illawarra Mercury on 23 April 2026 said 17 officers were charged and seven dismissed, figures that do not match the report's 15 charged. The ABC, reporting the same day, used the report's figures and noted that 11 victims withdrew their allegations. The police minister, Yasmin Catley, said the force would consider the recommendations, according to the AAP report.

The third recommendation acquired a concrete example on 2 July 2026, when the ABC reported that a serving sergeant had pleaded guilty in June 2026 to unlawfully accessing the COPS database and passing information to a former officer facing domestic violence allegations.

What is not yet known is whether the 2025 procedures have lifted compliance. The Commission did not attempt to measure how common officer involved domestic violence is in the force, only how complaints about it were handled, and it says it will monitor the effect of the new procedures without naming a date for reporting back.