NSW Police Mandate Body-Worn Cameras After Brutality Allegations

NSW Police has announced it will move to the mandatory use of body-worn video for its thousands of sworn officers in the wake of a Four Corners story revealing allegations of a culture of impunity within the police.

Four Corners revealed a series of disturbing cases of police brutality since 2020 amid a sharp rise in complaints and civil suits over the last decade.

"Last night's episode of Four Corners, which myself and many others obviously watched, was very confronting," Assistant Commissioner Peter Cotter, who is responsible for all NSW Police internal investigations, told 702 ABC Sydney's Craig Reucassel.

Assistant Commissioner Cotter said a review of the standard operating procedures for body-worn video was underway and would lead to change.

He noted the decision had not yet been formally agreed to by the commissioner but he noted the most important anticipated change.

"When we're going to be using force or using a power, yeah, they [NSW Police Force body-worn cameras] will be switched on and recording," he said.

A NSW Police spokesman later confirmed to the ABC that the police would be making the change.

That means whenever an officer uses a police power — from stopping people in the street all the way to the appropriate use of violence — they will be obliged to immediately commence recording.

At the moment, the use of body-worn cameras by NSW Police officers has been discretionary, meaning there were no strict rules about when they should turn it on and individual officers could make their own choices.

As documented in Four Corners, that led officers to not turning on their cameras until after people were arrested, muting their cameras during relevant moments, or simply not carrying a camera at all.

The change will be welcomed by the NSW Police watchdog, the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission, which has been pushing for it since 2023.

It will also bring NSW into line with all other Australians states, except for Western Australia, which continues to maintain a discretionary approach to body-worn camera use.

NSW Greens's justice spokesperson Sue Higginson said Tuesday's commitment did not go far enough.

"The requirement mandating the use of body-worn video should be a legal requirement, not just in police-controlled operating manuals."

The Police Association of NSW said it supported the use of body-worn cameras and would continue to work with the force on policy changes.

Push for reform

Four Corners included two cases of Sydney women living with mental illness who were assaulted by police.

Jodi Knott was the victim of a 15-minute assault by NSW Police officers Nathan Black and Timothy Trautsch in 2023, while the woman was naked on a public street and experiencing a psychotic episode.

In October last year, Black and Trautsch were jailed for common assault.

Black received a non-parole period of three years and three months and Trautsch received three years.

Samantha Testalamuta, who lives with bipolar disorder, was repeatedly punched by two junior officers who were responding to a noise complaint at her house in December last year.

The officers intended to charge her with assaulting police but the arrest was discontinued.

Police told Four Corners they had investigated and taken "appropriate action" against the two officers involved but declined to say what those actions were and they remain on the force.

In response, the two major psychiatry bodies in Australia, the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP) and the Australian Society of Psychiatrists (ASOP), called for urgent reform.

"The footage shown on Four Corners was sickening," ASOP chief executive Pramudie Gunaratne said.

"Behind every incident is a human being at one of the most vulnerable moments of their life, often frightened, confused, unwell and unable to understand what is happening around them.

"The question raised by Four Corners is not simply whether individual decisions were right or wrong.

Responding to the Jodi Knott incident, the College of Psychiatrists's NSW branch chair Ian Kobel said people experiencing psychosis were "among the most vulnerable members of our community".

"What we saw raises serious questions about whether current response models are adequately designed to support people experiencing severe mental distress," he said.

Dr Kobel said a scheme designed to provide specialist mental health clinicians to NSW Police stations, called PACER, did not help Ms Knott.

"People experiencing a mental health crisis deserve timely access to specialist care, regardless of where they live,"

"PACER must be expanded statewide and underpinned by a consistent triage model, as the current system is fragmented, available in only 16 of 57 Police Area Commands and Districts, and lacks 24/7 coverage anywhere in NSW."

'Behind a desk'

Assistant Commissioner Cotter acknowledged an officer declared by a court to have brutally assaulted a man at Blacktown station in 2021 had been taken off the street and placed "behind a desk" at the NSW Police youth command.

Four Corners examined the case of Senior Constable Mark Davis, who was a general duties officer at Blacktown Police Station in 2021 when he was involved in the unlawful arrest of Brad Kellson.

Senior Constable Davis and other officers were then responsible for what a district court would later describe as a "brutal assault" on the 38-year-old, leaving him with 10 to 12 broken ribs and a punctured lung, necessitating a four-day stay in an intensive care ward.

Four Corners revealed that despite two courts stating Mr Kellson had been assaulted and officers had colluded and — in Senior Constable Davis's case — lied on the stand, he was merely moved to a neighbouring command and given a job as a youth liaison officer.

Four Corners on Monday published photos of Senior Constable Davis giving a lecture on bullying to students at a Penrith high school as part of that role.

"At a certain time after that incident was investigated, yes, he was back in his policing world in a part of Sydney and he was delivering lectures," Assistant Commissioner Cotter said.

"That is truth. He is no longer in that role. He's in a specialist command at the moment and he's behind a desk and not communicating or confronting the community."

Two NSW Police investigations also found that no officers had committed acts of excessive force or been dishonest, although they did say they had made an unspecified finding against one or more officers in that case and that had led to "management action", though what that action was, was also unspecified.

"These matters were investigated," Assistant Commissioner Cotter said.

"The Law Enforcement Conduct Commission oversighted. And they are satisfied, as we are, where some of those matters landed."

NSW Premier Chris Minns also responded to Four Corners on Tuesday.

"We can't speak in total terms about police officers,"

"But we have a strong, robust, independent investigatory body in New South Wales with oversight of the police and public officials and I think the public should have confidence in those bodies to do their job."

Watch Four Corners's full investigation, Brutal Force, on ABC iview now.