FAQs | Law Enforcement Conduct Commission

Frequently Asked Questions

Check here for answers to questions commonly put to the LECC.

Are we the right agency for you?

We won't investigate:

customer service issues by the NSW Police
internal performance management issues (for example, officers who claim sick leave when not they’re not ill)
the outcome of traffic or court decisions
issues that are about law enforcement agencies in other states or territories

We also don’t deal with allegations about:

Federal parliamentarians, departments, agencies or the judiciary
the private sector — unless NSW Police Force or NSW Crime Commission officers are involved

There are other complaint agencies you can approach if you do not have a complaint or information about suspected serious misconduct or wrongdoing involving the NSW Police or NSW Crime Commission.

Who can make a complaint or provide information?

Members of the public

The LECC encourages members of the public to report suspected serious misconduct or serious maladministration involving the NSW Police Force or NSW Crime Commission.

A representative

A legal representative or a Member of Parliament can submit a complaint on your behalf. Other people can assist you in submitting a complaint if you are having difficulties.

Anonymous 

You can make a complaint anonymously, however you should be aware that we will not be able to contact you to discuss or clarify any aspect of your complaint.

NSW police officers 

If you are a serving officer, you can fulfil your obligation to report police misconduct by submitting a complaint to us.

NSW public officials

a person employed in or by a NSW agency or otherwise in the service of an agency

a person having public official functions or acting in a public official capacity whose conduct or activities an integrity agency is authorised by another Act or law to investigate

an individual in the service of the NSW Crown

a statutory officer

a person providing services or exercising functions on behalf of an agency, including a contractor, subcontractor or volunteer

an employee, partner or officer of an entity that provides services, under contract, subcontract or other arrangement, on behalf of an agency or exercises functions of an agency, and are involved in providing those services or exercising those functions

a judicial officer

a person employed under the  Members of Parliament Staff Act 2013

Learn how to make a complaint by visiting our Make a Complaint page.

Are you a public official?

If you are a NSW public official and you have information about members of the NSW Police or the NSW Crime Commission engaging in corrupt conduct, maladministration or serious waste of public money, you can make a public interest disclosure to the LECC under the Public Interest Disclosure Act 2022 (NSW) (the PID Act). 

The PID Act gives legal protection to people who work in the NSW public sector when they report serious wrongdoing. It means they can make a report without fear of being sued for defamation or other action as payback for making the report.

The provides the framework for making public interest disclosures (PIDs) and the protections for those making disclosures.

Who is a NSW Public Official?

a person employed in or by a NSW agency or otherwise in the service of an agency

a person having public official functions or acting in a public official capacity whose conduct or activities an integrity agency is authorised by another Act or law to investigate

an individual in the service of the NSW Crown

a statutory officer

a person providing services or exercising functions on behalf of an agency, including a contractor, subcontractor or volunteer

an employee, partner or officer of an entity that provides services, under contract, subcontract or other arrangement, on behalf of an agency or exercises functions of an agency, and are involved in providing those services or exercising those functions

a judicial officer

a person employed under the Members of Parliament Staff Act 2013

Thinking about making a complaint?

While there is technically no time limit for submitting a complaint, enquiries into making a complaint are likely to be more effective if the complaint is submitted soon after the incident occurred.

You should be aware that making a false complaint is an offence under section 167A of the Police Act 1990.

Learn how to make a complaint by visiting our Make a Complaint page.

How is your privacy protected?

Any information provided to the LECC is received in-confidence. The LECC handles your information and personal details carefully and confidentially.

If you’re worried about your privacy, you can make a complaint anonymously. But it may be harder for us to assess or investigate an anonymous complaint.

For this reason, it’s a good idea to give us a way to contact you. If you do give us your contact details, we’ll let you know that we’ve received your complaint. We’ll also tell you what action we decide to take.

Please find our relevant privacy polices below:

Is there a record of my complaint?

All complaints, even less serious matters such as rudeness, are required to be registered on the NSWPF complaints system, with details of the allegation and the outcome of any inquiries. The Law Enforcement Conduct Commission is able to access the NSWPF complaints information system. This is helpful as a tool to assist with our monitoring, auditing and intelligence functions. We regularly audit police complaint handling systems to make sure complaints are being handled appropriately.

How do we report on the outcome of an investigation?

We will release a public report if we hold a public examination. We may also release a public report of a private examination or about the systemic work we do.

These reports are tabled before both Houses of Parliament with a recommendation it be made public. Once we have been given approval to make a report public, we will post it on our website. We usually issue a media release for any public report.

If we decide a report should be private we’ll only share it with the Minister of Police, the person who made the complaint and the Commissioner of Police.

We won’t discuss the contents of a private report with the media.

How are we held accountable?

The ‘Parliamentary Joint Committee on the Ombudsman, the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission and the Crime Commission’ monitors and reviews our performance. That Committee has public hearings and produces a report.

The ‘Inspector of the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission’ can:

handle complaints about us and our work
check if we are complying with laws and our policies are working effectively.

Can't find the information you are looking for on this website?

If the information you are looking for cannot be found on our website, please contact our Right to Information Officer.

Our Right to Information Officer will be able to advise you whether the information you are seeking can be made available without you having to make a formal access application. You can also access guidance material prepared by the Information and Privacy Commission.

Making a formal access application

If the information you are looking for is not already available on this website or able to be provided by the LECC after an informal request, you may formally apply for access to the information.

A formal ‘access application’ will only be valid if it meets the following requirements:

Is in writing and sent to our address

Clearly states it is an access application made under the Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009*

Includes payment for the $30.00 application fee

Has your return postal address for correspondence

Explains in clear terms with as much specific detail as possible, the information you are applying for

In addition, given the sensitive nature of the information held by the LECC, any requests for information concerning our investigative, reporting and corruption prevention functions, or handling of misconduct matters will be invalid and therefore refused. The GIPA Act and the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission Act 2016 have specific provisions which either prohibit or limit the public release of such information.

Please contact our office and ask to speak with one of our Right to Information Officers if you are not sure if the information you are looking for may fall within the excluded information category or if you have any questions relating to access to information.

*The Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009 (GIPA Act) replaced the Freedom of Information Act 1989 from 1 July 2010.

The purpose of the GIPA Act is to facilitate public access to government information.

The GIPA Act requires government agencies such as the LECC to make certain information easily available to the public without requiring an application. This is known as ‘open access information’, and includes:

information about who we are, what we do and what information we hold (our Agency Information Guide)

our policy documents

any information about the LECC contained in documents tabled in Parliament

a log of all access applications (our disclosure log), and

a register of certain government contracts

To find out more about your right to information and ways to access NSW government information visit the Information and Privacy Commission’s website.

Where is my Local Area Command?

NSW is geographically divided into various Local Area Commands, with each Command having responsibility for a particular area. To find out which Local Area Command has responsibility for your suburb, click here.

Can we help?

If any information or service provided by this website is inaccessible to you or you are experiencing problems accessing  content for any reason, please email contactus@lecc.nsw.gov.au