Summary
The LECC is meant to detect, investigate and expose serious police misconduct, and to watch over the much larger number of complaints that the NSW Police Force investigates itself. On the record, the second job is done at volume and the first has shrunk.
- Own investigations fell by two-thirds while the Commission grew. It completed 104 investigations (preliminary enquiries, preliminary investigations and full investigations) in 2018-19 and 35 in 2024-25. Over the same period its staff rose from 108.60 to 131 and its expenses from $23.2 million to $27.8 million (nominal).
- It reported no prosecutions in 2024-25 arising from its investigations, and served no court attendance notices in 2023-24 or 2024-25. It referred two finalised investigations to the Director of Public Prosecutions in 2024-25, who decides whether to prosecute.
- Most complaints go back to the police. The Commission says that "In most instances, complaints are referred to the NSW Police Force or the NSW Crime Commission for their management" (AR 2024-25 p 25). No annual report says how many.
- It sets no service targets. No timeliness target for assessing complaints, investigating, or reviewing police investigations appears in any of its eight annual reports. Average assessment time was 38 days in 2022-23 and 54 days in 2023-24; for 2024-25 it reports 40 days on a different measure.
- Its annual reports do not supply several items its own Act requires, including the average time taken to deal with misconduct matters (given only once, in 2018-19, in a form that appears to measure time to start an investigation) and the extent to which its investigations led to disciplinary action.
- Police reject or have not yet answered a large share of its recommendations. Of 299 recommendations in its public register on 11 October 2026, NSWPF had fully supported 143 and not supported 57; 39 had no police response yet. Of the 260 answered, 55 per cent were fully supported and 78 per cent at least partly supported. 103 were recorded as implemented.
- Much of what limits it is in the statute. It can only ask police to reinvestigate (s 104); police may decline. Subject to a narrow exception, it cannot decide whether to investigate misconduct arising from a critical incident until the police investigation of that incident ends (s 44(9)). It has gone to court and to Parliament over access to police material. The Court of Appeal upheld its position in 2024, but access problems continued and Regulator Review found no amending legislation as at October 2026.
- There is real systemic work: the strip search inquiry, reviews of police handling of domestic violence by officers, failed prosecutions, use of force, and the Suspect Targeting Management Plan. Its 2026 investigation of the Sydney Town Hall protest policing (Operation Makalu) is under way, with a public opening on 19 October 2026 and public examinations of senior officers to follow.
The proposed grade is D. Reasons and what would change it are at the end.
1. What the LECC is for
1.1 The statute
The objects of the Act (s 3) include:
- "to provide for the independent detection, investigation and exposure of serious misconduct and serious maladministration within the NSW Police Force and the Crime Commission" (s 3(b));
- "to provide for independent oversight and review (including, where appropriate, real time monitoring and review) of the investigation by the NSW Police Force of misconduct matters" (s 3(c));
- "to provide for independent oversight and real time monitoring of critical incident investigations undertaken by the NSW Police Force" (s 3(h)).
The Act also says the Commission is "to recognise the primary responsibilities of the NSW Police Force and Crime Commission to investigate and prevent officer misconduct" (s 3(f)). The design is therefore a police-investigate-police model with an independent watchdog on top, plus a reserved power for the watchdog to investigate serious matters itself.
Section 44 lists what the Commission may do with a misconduct matter: investigate it, refer it to police, oversee the police investigation, attempt alternative dispute management, or "take no further action". If it takes no further action it "must notify the complainant of the decision and the reasons for it" (s 44(8)). Its decision is "determinative" (s 44(3)).
Source: Law Enforcement Conduct Commission Act 2016 (NSW), AustLII consolidation as at 10 June 2026, read 11 October 2026.
1.2 What the statute does not give it
These limits are faults of the legislation, not of the Commission, and are graded as such.
- Further investigation is a request. If the Commission is not satisfied a matter "has been properly investigated", it "may request" a further police investigation. The Commissioner of Police "may, but is not obliged to," conduct one, but must give reasons for declining (s 104(1)-(2)). Section 105 is to the same effect for police decisions on what action to take. The Commission's fallback is a report (s 134) or taking the matter over under Part 6.
- Critical incidents are investigated by police. When police are involved in a death or serious injury, NSWPF investigates. The Commission monitors (Part 8). It may observe critical incident interviews only with the consent of the person interviewed and of the senior critical incident investigator (s 114(3)(c), Bill as passed both Houses, 2016, pp 58-59). Except as provided by s 113(6), the Commission must postpone deciding whether to investigate misconduct by an officer involved in a critical incident until the critical incident investigation ends (s 44(9)).
- Access to police records is not general. The Inspector of the LECC notes that the Act gives the Inspector full access to the Commission's records but does not give the Commission a similar right over NSWPF records, a position the Inspector "regards as anomalous" (Inspector AR 2024-25 p 31).
1.3 What it says it does
The website describes its principal functions as "to detect, investigate and expose serious misconduct and serious maladministration within the NSW Police Force and the NSW Crime Commission" (lecc.nsw.gov.au/about-us, read 11 October 2026). The complaints page lists things it does not do, including investigating every complaint it receives and pressing charges (lecc.nsw.gov.au/complaints, read 11 October 2026).
The website publishes no service charter, service standards, complainant timeframes, complaint-handling policy, or policy for reviewing its own decisions at a complainant's request. A search of the site on 11 October 2026 for those terms found none. The internal reviews the site describes concern information access and similar policies, not decisions on complaints.
2. The record
All figures are as printed in the LECC annual report (AR) for the year, with printed page numbers. Where the PDF page differs it is given.
2.1 Complaints
| 2017-18 | 2018-19 | 2019-20 | 2020-21 | 2021-22 | 2022-23 | 2023-24 | 2024-25 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Complaints assessed, as first published | 2549 | 2547 | 3,452 | 3,276 | 5,095 | 4,703 | 5,755 | 6,421 |
| Restated in AR 2024-25 (re-assessments removed) | 4,301 | 4,050 | 5,034 | 6,421 | ||||
| Complaints received | Not reported | Not reported | 5,144 | 7,607 | ||||
| Average days to assess | 38 | 54 | 40 (new measure) |
Sources: AR 2017-18 p 22; AR 2018-19 p 16; AR 2019-20 p 18; AR 2021-22 p 33; AR 2022-23 p 32; AR 2023-24 p 22; AR 2024-25 p 26 (Table 1). The 2020-21 figure is as restated in AR 2021-22 p 33.
Findings of fact:
- Complaints assessed rose about two and a half times, from 2549 in 2017-18 to 6,421 in 2024-25. 7,607 complaints were received in 2024-25 (AR 2024-25 p 26); counts of complaints received are not published before 2023-24.
- No annual report publishes how many complaints the Commission closed with no further action, referred to police, or kept for its own action. A text search of all eight reports for "no further action", "declined", "referred to the NSW Police Force" and "assessment outcome" found no count.
- In 2023-24 it described the 54-day average as "a significant increase in the time taken to assess each complaint compared with previous years" (AR 2023-24 p 22). In 2024-25 it reported 40 days measured "from receipt of a complaint, through to assessment and closure" (AR 2024-25 p 26). The two measures are defined differently, so the comparison is not like for like (assessment).
- A new triage model from September 2024 sends only "serious, systemic and strategic" complaints to its Complaint Action Panel (AR 2024-25 p 25).
- No target for assessment time appears in any annual report.
2.2 The Commission's own investigations (Part 6)
| 2017-18 | 2018-19 | 2019-20 | 2020-21 | 2021-22 | 2022-23 | 2023-24 | 2024-25 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Worked on (all types) | 179 | 207 | 159 | 125 | 112 | 84 | 63 | 70 |
| of which full investigations | 28 | 49 | 57 | 43 | 42 | 37 | 32 | 37 |
| Completed | 96 | 104 | 100 | 70 | 70 | 46 | 28 | 35 |
| Open at 30 June | 83 | 103 | 59 | 55 | 42 | 38 | 35 | 35 |
| Full investigations referred to DPP | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Private examinations | 29 | 78 | 45 | 23 | 27 | 29 | 43 | 48 |
| Public examination days | 4 | 0 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 0 |
| Search warrants (s 79) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 8 | 5 |
Sources: AR 2017-18 pp 32-35; AR 2018-19 pp 23, 27; AR 2019-20 pp 27, 31; AR 2020-21 pp 31, 34; AR 2021-22 pp 44, 47; AR 2022-23 pp 40, 44; AR 2023-24 pp 29, 32; AR 2024-25 pp 32, 36; powers appendices (AR 2018-19 p 81; AR 2019-20 p 97; AR 2020-21 p 105; AR 2021-22 p 124; AR 2022-23 p 162; AR 2023-24 p 125; AR 2024-25 p 133).
Findings of fact:
- Investigations completed fell from 104 (2018-19) to 28 (2023-24) and 35 (2024-25). The fall is mostly in preliminary enquiries and preliminary investigations; since 2018-19 full investigations worked on have stayed between 32 and 57 a year.
- Over the same years total expenses rose from $23,240,000 (2018-19, as restated in AR 2019-20) to $27,765,000 (2024-25) in nominal terms, and staff from 108.60 (AR 2018-19 p 63) to 131 (AR 2024-25 p 81). Staff were between 108 and 112 until 2022-23 and rose to 125 and then 131 after new funding.
- "There were no prosecutions in 2024-25 arising from Commission investigations" (AR 2024-25 p 135). The Commission "did not serve any" court attendance notices in 2023-24 (p 33) or 2024-25 (p 37). In 2024-25 it referred two finalised full investigations to the DPP, including briefs relating to 36 proposed offences in Operations Dartmoor and Bendoc (AR 2024-25 pp 36-39). Whether to prosecute is the DPP's decision.
- Public examinations were held in three of eight years. The Inspector observed in 2020-21 that the Commission "has, in practice, usually opted to conduct private examinations" (Inspector AR 2020-21, annexure).
- Use of search warrants rose from none in its first three years to between 2 and 8 a year since. The Commissioners themselves have issued none under s 79(2).
- Between 2023 and 2026 the Commission published 3 to 5 investigation reports a year (Regulator Review count of reports listed on lecc.nsw.gov.au, 11 October 2026).
The Commission said in its first year that it was "constrained by a budget that does not allow us to take on all the investigations we would like", and that it would "have to refer matters back to the NSWPF for investigation which should otherwise have been independently investigated by the LECC" (AR 2017-18 p 5). The Parliamentary Committee recorded in 2018 that the Commission "did not have enough staff to investigate 51 matters that it thought warranted investigation" in its first seven months (Committee Report 4/56, August 2018, para 1.9).
That explanation does not fit the later years. Funding was increased: a 2022-23 budget bid was "approved by the Expenditure Review Committee in full" (AR 2022-23 p 93), ten new positions were funded in 2023-24, and every 2025-26 proposal was supported, with an appropriation of $31,797,050 against $28,748,435 the year before (Committee Report 2/58, September 2025, paras 2.1-2.4). The financial statement notes record employee expenditure below budget because of vacancies in every year from 2020-21 to 2024-25; in 2019-20 recruitment was postponed to meet efficiency savings. In 2021-22 recurrent appropriation was "approximately 8.5% below budget due to the Commission not requiring it's full approved appropriation" (AR 2021-22, financial statements note).
Assessment: the fall in the Commission's own investigative output cannot be put down to a lack of money in the years since 2022-23. The annual reports do not explain it.
2.3 Oversight of police investigations (Part 7)
| 2019-20 | 2020-21 | 2021-22 | 2022-23 | 2023-24 | 2024-25 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Completed NSWPF investigations received for oversight | 1,396 | 1,511 | 2,385 | 2,104 | 1,926 | 2,449 |
| Oversight finalised (table) | 969 | 1,984 | 2,402 | 2,129 | 2,027 | 1,562 |
| Requests for further investigation (s 104) | 34 | 8 | 10 | 31 | 22 | 19 |
| Police reinvestigated after s 104 request | 8 | 2 | 4 | 11 | 8 | 12 |
| Requests for review of police action (s 105) | 8 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 14 | 27 |
| Requirements to investigate (s 99(3)) | 117 | 17 | 16 | 24 | 32 | 35 |
Sources: AR 2019-20 pp 23, 41-43; AR 2020-21 pp 26, 42-44; AR 2021-22 pp 37, 57-59; AR 2022-23 pp 35, 55-56; AR 2023-24 pp 25, 41-43; AR 2024-25 pp 28, 46-47 (Tables 18-20).
Findings of fact:
- Over the six years, the Commission asked police to reinvestigate 124 times. Police reinvestigated 45 times, about 36 per cent (Regulator Review calculation; requests and reinvestigations do not always fall in the same year). In some other cases police reviewed the matter without a further investigation and changed findings. The Act permits police to decline.
- In 2019-20 the Commission found that "approximately 30% of matters had not had the required investigation commenced" after it had required police to investigate under s 99(3) (AR 2019-20 p 23). The same report said new NSWPF processes had since produced "significantly greater compliance" with s 99(3) requirements. The number of s 99(3) requirements then fell from 117 to 17 in one year. Regulator Review found no explanation for the fall in the 2020-21 report.
- The 2024-25 report says the Commission "finalised the review of 2,411" police investigations (AR 2024-25 p 45; "2,411 Investigations oversighted", p 6). Its own Table 19 on the next page gives 1,562 police investigations where oversight was finalised (p 46). The report does not reconcile the two. In the three previous reports the two figures matched.
- On Table 18 and Table 19, 2,449 police investigations were received for oversight in 2024-25 and 1,562 were finalised. The Commission does not publish how many are waiting for review or how old they are.
2.4 Critical incidents (Part 8)
| 2017-18 | 2018-19 | 2019-20 | 2020-21 | 2021-22 | 2022-23 | 2023-24 | 2024-25 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Critical incidents declared | 34 | 32 | 27 | 27 | 36 | 45 | 36 | 42 |
| Locations attended by LECC | 19 | 27 | 16 | 13 | 23 | 34 | 23 | 27 |
Sources: AR 2017-18 p 17; AR 2024-25 p 53 (Table 22) and earlier equivalents.
Findings of fact:
- The power to observe interviews of officers involved in critical incidents "appears to be an illusory power" (AR 2018-19 p 42; the point was first made in AR 2017-18 p 16 and repeated in later reports). The Parliamentary Committee recorded in 2024 that "all NSWPF interviewees have declined consent for the LECC to be present at their interviews" (Committee Report 1/58, August 2024, para 1.25).
- "In August 2023, for the first time, the Commission was refused access to material relevant to a critical incident" (AR 2023-24 p 50). Police claimed public interest immunity in relation to material from eight critical incidents. The Court of Appeal decided against the Commissioner of Police in June 2024 (Commissioner of Police v Attorney General for NSW [2024] NSWCA 150). In October 2025 the Committee said it was "concerned to hear" that the judgment and a later joint protocol "had not resolved the Commission's issues accessing documents" (Committee Report 3/58, para 1.24), and recommended that the Government "consider amending" the Act (Recommendation 1).
- Police reports on critical incidents take years. In 2024-25 the police reports received took "an average of 2 years and 6 months" from the incident, and "an average of 11 months after court processes were finalised"; 13 incidents that had been finalised by the courts or involved no court proceedings were still awaiting a report (AR 2024-25 p 57). The Commission had recommended a standard of three months after court proceedings end; NSWPF accepted it only "in principle", treating the timeframes as "suggested guidelines only" (AR 2022-23 pp 70-71).
- When Clare Nowland, aged 95, was tasered by a police officer in Cooma in May 2023, the Commission said publicly that it could not then investigate because s 44(9) required it to wait for the police critical incident investigation (LECC statement, 24 May 2023). Regulator Review found no LECC report on the matter. The officer was convicted of manslaughter and was not sent to prison (CBS News, 2025).
Assessment: the critical incident scheme is the clearest case where the statute, not the Commission, sets the limit. The Commission has said so plainly, litigated, and asked Parliament for change.
2.5 Systemic work and recommendations
The Commission has produced systemic reports with real effect, including:
- the inquiry into NSWPF strip search practices (December 2020, 25 recommendations);
- Operation Tepito on the Suspect Targeting Management Plan, after which NSWPF stopped using the policy on young people in late 2023 (AR 2023-24 p 59);
- reviews of police responses to domestic and family violence (June 2023) and of police investigations of officers involved in domestic and family violence (April 2026: 67 investigations, 56 officers, 15 of them charged with 145 offences);
- a review of 92 failed prosecutions in which judicial officers criticised the police investigation (October 2025, 7 recommendations, all supported);
- body-worn video, which NSWPF made mandatory after Commission recommendations (LECC media release, 5 August 2026).
Sources: LECC media releases of the dates given (lecc.nsw.gov.au/news, read 11 October 2026); AR 2023-24 p 59.
Recommendations register. Since March 2025 the Commission has published a register of recommendations made in its public reports, as a Power BI dashboard on its data hub. On 11 October 2026 (dashboard "Last updated: 10/10/2026") it showed 299 recommendations, with NSWPF support status:
| Status | Number |
|---|---|
| Supported | 143 |
| Supported in principle | 48 |
| Partially supported | 12 |
| Not supported | 57 |
| Awaiting response from NSWPF | 31 |
| NSWPF awaiting advice from another agency | 8 |
| Total | 299 |
103 recommendations were recorded as implemented and 18 as not implemented. The not-supported list includes 7 of the 25 strip search inquiry recommendations. Counts were read in Chrome by applying the register's own filters.
When the register was launched the Commission reported 255 recommendations, 173 supported and 90 implemented (media release, 14 March 2025). The release did not say which register categories its "supported" figure includes.
Assessment: publishing the register is a genuine transparency gain. The numbers in it show the limits of a recommendation-only model: on the register's own figures, police have fully supported fewer than half of all the Commission's recommendations (55 per cent of those they have answered), and about a third are recorded as implemented.
2.6 Service to complainants
- The Commission publishes no service standard, complainant timeframe, or complainant satisfaction measure. A search of all eight annual reports for "satisfaction", "survey", "complainant experience" and "feedback" found no measure of complainants' views (the hits concern staff surveys). The 2024-25 report says it "remains committed to improving the complainant experience and timeliness" (p 26) without a measure.
- The 2020-23 strategic plan listed "Improved response to complainants" as a performance measure (AR 2020-21 p 16), with no indicator or result.
- The Inspector of the LECC recorded recurring problems, while sustaining no complaint. In 2018-19 the Inspector found occasions on which the Commission "had delayed in responding to complaints" and isolated instances where it "had not initially acknowledged receipt", and said that on a couple of occasions the Inspector's own requests about matters "have gone unanswered for considerable periods of time" (Inspector AR 2018-19 pp 24-25); the next year the Inspector said those concerns had been allayed. The 2019-20 and 2021-22 reports used near-identical words: on occasions, "albeit relatively few in number", complainants "did raise what appeared to be legitimate concerns" about not being kept informed, timeliness and inadequate reasons, "particularly so in relation to decisions either to take no further action or to refer the complaint to the NSW Police Force" (Inspector AR 2019-20 pp 27-28; AR 2021-22 pp 20-21).
- In 2024-25, half of the complaints made to the Inspector included a complaint that the Commission "did not investigate the complaint made to it" (Inspector AR 2024-25 pp 29-30).
- The Commission has no published process by which a complainant can ask it to review its own decision. The Inspector can examine complaints about it, but has no power "to alter or reverse a decision made by the Commission" (Inspector AR 2023-24 p 23).
3. What the LECC publishes, and what it stopped publishing
Section 139(2) of the Act lists what each annual report "must include". Several items are not supplied.
| s 139(2) item | What the reports do |
|---|---|
| (f)(i) time interval between receipt of each matter and the decision to investigate | 2017-18: "no useful indication … can be given" (p 21). Later years give an average in business days (18 in 2024-25, p 37) and a count of matters by time band, not the interval for each matter |
| (f)(iii) average time taken to deal with misconduct matters | 2017-18: "is not reported given the wide variety of issues and circumstances that affect each case" (p 33). 2018-19 gives "24.25 days … or 33.75 days" (p 18), which appears to measure time to start an investigation. Other years say the time "varies". The actual time for each investigation reported on is given every year |
| (g) evaluation of the response of the Commissioner of Police to the Commission's opinions and recommendations | 2017-18 checklist: "NA" (p 68). From 2018-19 each report has case narratives under a "responses to recommendations" heading for some operations; no overall evaluation found |
| (k) extent to which investigations resulted in prosecutions, disciplinary action or orders under s 173 or s 181D of the Police Act | Prosecutions appendix and case narratives. 2017-18 has a nil statement on disciplinary action (p 69). No count of disciplinary action or s 173 / s 181D orders found in any later year |
Each report's compliance index says every item is addressed. Absence was established by text search of all eight reports and checked by two reviewers.
Other reporting gaps found (all entered in the cross-body register):
- Headline contradicts table. "Finalised the review of 2,411" police investigations (AR 2024-25 pp 6, 45) against 1,562 in Table 19 (p 46).
- Table does not balance. Misconduct investigations monitored in 2024-25: 37 total, 20 finalised, 24 on hand (Table 21, AR 2024-25 p 50).
- Headline and body differ (minor). "6,422 Assessments completed" (AR 2024-25 p 6) against 6,421 complaints assessed (p 26).
- Same measure, two figures. Critical incident monitoring finalised: 20 and 10 in AR 2022-23 (Tables 20 and 23); 27 and 22 in AR 2023-24 (Tables 21 and 24).
- Headline count redefined twice. Complaints assessed: without re-assessments (to 2020-21), with them (2021-22 to 2023-24), without them again and restated (2024-25). Re-assessments were introduced as something "required under the LECC Act" (AR 2021-22 p 31) and removed in 2024-25 with "This is no longer being reported" (p 26).
- Timeliness measure changed in 2024-25 and then compared with the old measure.
- Measures dropped. Allegation-type profile of complaints assessed (last 2020-21); police versus public split of direct complaints (last 2023-24); outcomes of investigations required under s 99(3) (last 2023-24); time from critical incident declaration to notification of the Commission (last 2023-24); average days to receive police video (last 2022-23).
- Outcomes moved out of the report. Acceptance of recommendations was a 2020-23 performance measure (AR 2020-21 p 16); no acceptance rate appears in any annual report. From 2024-25 readers are pointed to the website register.
- No operational targets. No benchmark for complaints, investigations or oversight is reported in any year. The only benchmarks reported with results concern paying invoices on time and workforce diversity.
- Systems. "Prior to the implementation of the new case management system, the Commission was unable to track the additional assessment undertaken on a complaint once it was referred to the NSWPF" (AR 2021-22 p 33, footnote 2).
- Cost of the three functions. Section 139(5) requires the separate cost of operations under Parts 6, 7 and 8. Those figures are published from 2019-20 (for example $9,854,516, $2,107,045 and $771,260 in 2024-25, AR 2024-25 p 77). They account for 45 to 53 per cent of total expenses; the rest is not attributed to any Part (Regulator Review calculation). The Act requires only the three Part figures. The 2017-18 and 2018-19 financial statements could not be checked in text form.
- Operational snapshots on the website stop at 2022-23.
The Commission has not given reasons for most of these changes. Where it has, the reason is recorded in the register.
4. Accountability
- Inspector. In eight years the Inspector has not sustained a complaint against the Commission or made a finding of maladministration or misconduct (Inspector ARs 2017-18 to 2024-25). The Inspector cannot review the merits of decisions not to investigate, so that record says little about them. The Inspector's latest overall view is that the Commission's policies and procedures are "considerably more than merely satisfactory" under current leadership (Inspector AR 2024-25 p 34).
- Findings revisited. After a complaint by the ABC, the Inspector had "several concerns" about findings in the Operation Kurumba report concerning former Police Commissioner Mick Fuller and its compliance with s 143. The Commission issued a supplementary report in December 2022 that revisited some findings and withdrew criticism of the media (Inspector AR 2022-23 pp 19-20; AR 2022-23 p 49).
- Spending without authority. In 2019 the Auditor-General found the Commission "did not comply with s. 12A" of the Public Finance and Audit Act when it spent $8,074.66 on overseas travel after the Minister had declined approval (Audit Office, 21 February 2019).
- Governance. In 2019-20 a dispute between the Chief Commissioner and the Commissioner for Oversight led to an Inspector special report; the Commissioner for Oversight's appointment was terminated in January 2020 and the Chief Commissioner's term ended on 31 January 2020. The Committee said this history suggested "confusion over the respective roles and responsibilities of the Commissioners which has contributed to internal conflicts and a period of instability" (Committee Report 1/57, August 2020, para 1.14). The Act was amended in 2021 to a two-Commissioner model.
- Independence. The Auditor-General found in 2020 that the Commission "has less independence from the Executive Government" than other integrity agencies because it was not a separate agency under the Government Sector Finance Act 2018, and that the Commission "had not conducted effective strategic planning" in its first three years (Audit Office, 20 October 2020). Funding independence was strengthened in 2024.
- Parliament. The Committee reviews the Commission's reports and has repeatedly recorded its access problems. The Act does not authorise it to reconsider decisions or findings on particular matters (s 131(2)).
5. Grades by criterion
| Criterion | Grade | One-line reason |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Doing the core job | D | Its own investigations completed fell from 104 to 35 a year while staff and funding rose; no prosecutions arose from its work in 2024-25; review of police investigations continues at volume |
| 2. Service to the people it is there for | D | No service standards, targets or satisfaction measure; the Inspector recorded what appeared to be legitimate complainant concerns in several years; no published way to ask for a decision to be reviewed |
| 3. Willingness to use its powers | C | Search warrants and s 105 review requests rose and it litigated access successfully; s 104 requests, s 99(3) requirements and private examinations are below earlier peaks; public examinations are rare |
| 4. Systemic impact | C | Substantial systemic reports with some uptake (STMP, body-worn video, parts of the strip search inquiry), but police fully support fewer than half its recommendations |
| 5. Transparency about itself | D | Statutory reporting items missing, headline figures that contradict its tables, a redefined headline count, dropped measures; offset by the recommendations register and published part costs |
| 6. Accountability | C | Inspector, Committee and courts all operate; one set of findings revisited; 2019 spending breach; no merits review for complainants; key limits lie in the Act and are noted as such |
6. The grade
Proposed grade: D.
The criterion closest to the Commission's core job is the first: detecting, investigating and exposing serious misconduct. The Commission's own investigative output has fallen by about two-thirds since 2018-19 while its staff grew by about a fifth and its funding problems were addressed, and the reports do not explain why. No prosecutions in 2024-25 arose from its investigations, although it referred two to the DPP that year. The second criterion weighs next, because most people meet the Commission as complainants, and it publishes no standard against which complainants could hold it, and no measure of what they get.
Against that, the Commission works under a statute that leaves the police to investigate their own critical incidents and lets them decline its requests. It now uses search warrants and review requests more often, has gone to court and to Parliament over access, and produced systemic reports that changed police practice. Those points keep it out of E, and the criteria for powers, systemic impact and accountability are graded C.
What would change the grade.
- Up to C: publishing the items s 139(2) requires (including average time to deal with matters and disciplinary outcomes), setting and reporting service targets for complaint assessment and oversight, reconciling its headline figures with its tables, and publishing the outcome split of complaints (no further action, referred to police, investigated).
- Up to C or B: a sustained recovery in its own completed investigations, and an Operation Makalu report that is timely, uses the public examinations announced, and leads to findings that are acted on.
- Down to E: further falls in its own investigations, or continued non-reporting of items required by its Act.
Statutory changes that gave the Commission enforceable access to police material or the power to investigate critical incidents itself would change what can fairly be expected of it, and would be taken into account in later reviews.
7. Fairness notes
- The LECC's work is not like-for-like with a complaints body. Most of its oversight is of police investigations, and counts of complaints do not measure that work.
- The fall in investigations completed is mostly in preliminary work. Since 2018-19 full investigations worked on have been between 32 and 57 a year. Some full investigations are large.
- Several limits found by the Committee and the Inspector are in the Act. They are noted here as faults of the legislation and not held against the Commission.
- Operation Makalu is unfinished. Nothing in this review anticipates its findings.
- Recommendations register counts were read from the live dashboard on 11 October 2026 and will change.
8. Sources
LECC annual reports (lecc.nsw.gov.au/publications/annual-reports, downloaded 11 October 2026):
- Annual Report 2016-17 (establishment; scanned, OCR text)
- Annual Report 2017-18; 2018-19; 2019-20; 2020-21; 2021-22; 2022-23; 2023-24; 2024-25
Legislation:
- Law Enforcement Conduct Commission Act 2016 (NSW), AustLII consolidation as at 10 June 2026: ss 3, 26, 44, 104, 131, 134, 139
- Law Enforcement Conduct Commission Bill 2016, as passed by both Houses (parliament.nsw.gov.au): ss 104, 105, 114
Inspector of the LECC (oilecc.nsw.gov.au):
- Annual reports 2017-18 to 2024-25
- Special Report 20/01 (3 December 2019); Special Report May 2022
NSW Parliament, Committee on the Ombudsman, the LECC and the Crime Commission:
- Report 4/56, 2018 review of annual reports (August 2018)
- Report 1/57, 2020 review (August 2020), and transcript of 17 February 2020
- Report 3/57, 2022 review (December 2022)
- Report 1/58, 2023 review (August 2024)
- Report 3/58, 2024 review (October 2025), and LECC answers to supplementary questions (24 April 2025)
- Report 2/58, 2025-26 appropriations (September 2025)
Audit Office of NSW:
- The effectiveness of the financial arrangements and management practices in four integrity agencies (20 October 2020)
- Law Enforcement Conduct Commission: compliance of expenditure with section 12A of the Public Finance and Audit Act (21 February 2019)
Other:
- Commissioner of Police v Attorney General for NSW [2024] NSWCA 150 (reported by AAP; judgment text not read)
- LECC media releases and website pages, read 11 October 2026
- LECC Recommendations Register (Power BI, data hub), read 11 October 2026
- NSWPF response to the strip search inquiry recommendations (LECC Fact Sheet 4, August 2021)
- NSW Budget 2025-26, Budget Paper 4, chapter 14
- CBS News, "Former Australian officer who killed 95-year-old woman with Taser avoids prison" (2025)