Bungles by NSW police officers cost $30m a year

Assault, battery, trespass and unlawful imprisonment and other cases against NSW police are costing $30 million a year.

NSW police bungles are costing more than $30 million a year in damages and compensation payouts to members of the public claiming to have been mistreated.

The number of successful claims involving police in New South Wales reached almost 400 in the past financial year – the highest level in five years and included assault, battery, unlawful imprisonment, malicious prosecution and trespass

More than $148 million has been paid since 2016 – an average of more than $80,000 a day – for more than 1600 incidents, sparking calls to overhaul police training and the “woke” police leadership.

Answers to Questions on Notice in NSW state parliament have revealed that during the pandemic year 2020-2021, police paid out $32,972,561 for 398 incidents, a jump of 100 incidents from 2019-2020 when $24,164,658 was paid out for 298 claims.

In comparison, Queensland for the same period paid out only $2,281,850 million, although the force has about 12,000 officers and NSW has about 17,000.

Retired detective sergeant turned One Nation MP Rod Roberts, said the consistency of the payouts every year showed the problems in NSW Police were “systemic” and had been ongoing for years.

“Police are a law enforcement body. Not social workers. To enforce the law they need to know the law, which by these figures they do not,” said Mr Roberts.

“We need to support our frontline officers and the first step in this is ensuring that they receive the appropriate training to enable them to perform their roles professionally,” he said.

NSW Police Acting Deputy Commissioner Corporate Services, Paul Pisanos said, “There is a myriad of reasons why civil claims are brought against the NSW Police Force, and to suggest that training – or lack thereof – is the cause is incorrect.”

The claim costs, including legal expenses for defending the police, are paid for by the NSW Police Force insurer.

The compensation amounts were revealed after questions in the NSW parliament and showed the categories of claims spanned intimidation, injurious falsehood, collateral abuse of process, negligence, trespass, misfeasance in public office.

Last year police were told they would not be held to account if they issued tickets wrongly for Covid breaches.

Mr Roberts said the management and leadership of the police in the past had been “too woke”.

“This is evidence they are not being trained properly and are being taught too much woke political correctness,” he said.

“The police are not getting the bread-and-butter education they need and the taxpayer is paying for it.

“The way we can be protected is for police to be aware of their powers.”

The call for better police training comes after criticism of plans by NSW Police to train 315 officers to become special gay and lesbian liaison officers for a huge World Pride event next year.

One Nation MP Mark Latham said the number was disproportionate and police should instead consider special training for dealing with housing estate and elderly residents.

https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/national/bungles-by-nsw-police-officers-cost-state-30m-a-year/news-story/0e6cbe0140b0933a6e51374ba5be9ffc