NSW Police Union Calls for US-Style Night Court

The union representing NSW Police officers wants a US-style "night court" set up to allow members to spend more time on the frontline and free up holding cells.

Police Association of NSW president Kevin Morton compared the role of police officers to "Uber drivers" in an address to the union's biennial conference in Wollongong today.

He said officers spent more time transporting accused people to cells than on the ground.

Mr Morton told the conference the judicial system needed to keep up with the reality of policing.

"They need court systems that operate with the realities of 24-hour policing in mind," he said.

"In dispensing justice, it is wrong to expect those charged to languish in cells, due to current court sitting hours, then expect our members to take the responsibility and consequences of these prisoners being held in not-fit-for-purpose complexes."

A night court was trialled at the Blacktown Local Court in 1986, but it was discontinued after 12 months.

A 2002 state parliamentary inquiry into court waiting times found a shortage of police prosecutors and lawyers available after hours was one of the reasons the trial failed.

But Mr Morton said policing and technology had changed dramatically since the 1980s.

"Policing is 24 hours and our court sitting hours just don't reflect what we have at the moment," he told reporters after his address.

"We are bail-refusing offenders, having issues with correctives being able to take those prisoners, and we're holding them in police cells which are not fit for purpose.

"That trial 40 years ago, we have technology that can assist now. It's one of the reforms that should be looked at seriously."

Mr Morton said bail applications not heard before a midday deadline were often held over until the next day, resulting in the accused "languishing" in cells or being transported to prisons.

"Corrections NSW are the experts in prisoner transport and it's time they took this role on once and for all."

The conference was attended by NSW Premier Chris Minns, Opposition Leader Kellie Sloane, Minister for Police Yasmin Catley and Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon.

The premier said he would examine the request.

"We don't have immediate plans to do that, but we have taken in the past the Police Association's calls for commonsense reforms that have actually helped police do their job," Mr Minns said.

"We don't dismiss the calls, the requests, the demands of the Police Association because in the past we've grabbed their initiatives and they've made a difference."

Commissioner Lanyon said police were doing a "remarkable" job at putting people before courts and was happy to work with the judiciary to work on efficiencies in the court system.