Category Archives: Australian police and policing

Uniformed NSW police again face Sydney Mardi Gras ban

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Officers could be barred from marching in 2025 over concerns force hasn’t improved relations with LGBTQ+ community

New South Wales police are facing a ban from the upcoming Mardi Gras parade over concerns about the force’s relationship with the queer community.

At the event’s annual general meeting on Saturday, members will vote on three resolutions on police participation in the parade after uniformed officers were banned from joining the 2024 march.

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More than 90% of people caught with small amounts of illicit drugs criminalised in NSW despite diversion reforms

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Exclusive: Police used discretion to divert just 6.9% of people caught with personal use quantities of drugs from criminal justice system, data shows

A New South Wales government program that gives police discretion to divert people found with small quantities of illicit drugs away from the courts has only been extended to 6.9% of people caught, including just 2.6% of those who are Indigenous.

The major reform by the Minns government came into effect in February this year and was flagged by the attorney general, Michael Daley, as a way to treat drug use as a health issue rather than a criminal one. Yet data obtained from NSW police under freedom of information shows the vast majority of those caught with illegal drugs continue to be criminalised.

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Family ‘devastated’ after two found dead in ‘confronting scene’ in Sydney’s west

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Bodies discovered on Saturday morning after police were called to shop on Oxford Street in Cambridge Park following reports of an assault

New South Wales police are appealing for information after two people were found dead with “significant injuries” in Sydney’s west on Saturday morning.

Officers were called to a shop on Oxford Street in Cambridge Park, near Penrith, after reports of an assault at about 9.40am.

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Kristian White ‘entirely devastated’ as Clare Nowland’s family ‘struggling to understand’ why police officer granted bail

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NSW police officer who fatally shot 95-year-old with Taser extends ‘thoughts and prayers’ to Nowland family after manslaughter verdict

The New South Wales policeman who fatally shot a 95-year-old great-grandmother with a Taser has said he never intended for her to be harmed, and remains “entirely devastated” for her family’s loss.

Sen Const Kristian James Samuel White shot Clare Nowland with his Taser in a Cooma nursing home in the early hours of 17 May 2023, after she refused to put down a sharp knife. Nowland fell and struck her head, dying a week later from inoperable bleeding on the brain.

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Zachary Rolfe’s ego played a part in Kumanjayi Walker’s shooting death, NT coroner told

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Coroner urged not to ‘sugarcoat’ police officer’s actions as inquest nears end

Zachary Rolfe’s ego “had a lot to do with” the death of Kumanjayi Walker, and the former police officer “invented” evidence about the Warlpiri man attempting to take his gun before the fatal shooting, a court has heard.

The inquest into the death of Walker is holding its final hearings, almost two years after it was due to be completed.

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Toddler believed to have been left alone in car for hours before death, Queensland police say

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Detectives investigate death of two-year-old girl in Innisfail, where temperatures peaked above 30C on Monday

Police investigating the death of a two-year-old girl at Innisfail in north Queensland believe the toddler had been inside a vehicle for several hours before she was found unresponsive on Monday.

The far north police Supt Mick Searle said detectives would undertake a “very complex and detailed” investigation into the girl’s death.

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New law introduced to block legal challenge to An0m organised crime bust

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People charged after the AFP sting against the encypted app claim the information was not obtained lawfully

The Albanese government will attempt to block legal challenges by people charged after an elaborate Australian Federal Police sting using the encrypted An0m application.

The attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, introduced laws to prevent any legal challenge to Operation Ironside on Thursday, despite special leave already being granted to the high court for an appeal by people charged in South Australia as a result of the sting.

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Police officer who tasered Clare Nowland was ‘fed up’ she would not drop steak knife, jury told

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Kristian White did not consider 95-year-old a threat and fired stun gun because he was ‘impatient’ and ‘not prepared to wait any longer’, manslaughter trial told

A police officer’s cursing just before he tasered an elderly woman who was holding a knife showed the aged-care resident was not a threat but that he was simply fed up with the situation, a jury has heard.

Dramatic footage of the incident taken from the nursing home’s CCTV and police bodyworn cameras has been shown at a NSW supreme court manslaughter trial for Sen Const Kristian White.

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Police officer who tasered Clare Nowland tells court taking knife from her hand came with ‘high risk’

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Sen Const Kristian White says situation with 95-year-old carrying knife ‘was not going to be resolved without the use of force’

A police officer who fatally tasered a 95-year-old woman in a nursing home said he tried to give her “every opportunity to drop the knife” she was carrying, but she had “made her intent clear: she was going to use that knife on anyone that got near her”.

Sen Const Kristian James Samuel White also told the court simply taking the knife out of Clare Nowland’s hand came with “risk, high risk”.

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Woman caught with golden gun in luggage at Sydney airport ‘deeply regrets’ actions, court hears

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Liliana Goodson is ‘capable of rehabilitation’ after being caught travelling from US to Australia with firearm, lawyer says

A woman who “deeply regrets” packing a gun in her bag before she flew to Australia will face sentencing in December following further delays in her court case.

Liliana Goodson admitted illegally importing an unauthorised illegal firearm and illegally importing ammunition as she faced a hearing earlier this year.

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No adverse findings in probe into elite Northern Territory police triggered by offensive ‘awards’

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Corruption watchdog rules out further investigation into racism within the force despite evidence of historical racial discrimination

WARNING: This article contains offensive content

A corruption watchdog has closed an investigation into racism within the Northern Territory police force’s elite tactical response group with no adverse findings despite uncovering historical evidence of race-based discrimination.

The probe was triggered after former constable Zachary Rolfe attempted to prove the force’s ingrained culture of racism, using as evidence a historical racist mock-award handed out in the group to the officer who behaved “most like an Aboriginal”.

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Police ‘should have done more’ to save Melbourne woman stabbed to death by ex-partner in front of children

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Family violence unit officers missed opportunities to protect Noeline Dalzell before James Fairhall murdered her, Victoria’s coroner says

Police missed an opportunity to protect a woman who was stabbed to death by her ex-partner in front of their three children, Victoria’s state coroner has found.

Noeline Dalzell was murdered by James Fairhall at her home in Melbourne’s south-east in February 2020, three months after he was released from custody for breaching a family violence intervention order.

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Police to charge man who allegedly carjacked 70-year-old and held father and toddler in Melbourne siege

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The 26-year-old Snake Valley man remains in hospital with police expecting to charge him on Wednesday afternoon

A man will be charged after allegedly carjacking a 70-year-old woman before breaking into a Melbourne home and holding a father and his toddler inside in an hours-long siege.

A 26-year-old Snake Valley man, known to police, allegedly carjacked the woman in the western Victorian town about 2.30pm on Tuesday.

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Boy, 16, charged with manslaughter after alleged gunpoint carjacking near Brisbane

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Teenager in custody after 69-year-old woman killed and two police officers injured in Murrumba Downs collision

A 16-year-old boy has been charged with manslaughter after a fatal crash north of Brisbane that followed an alleged carjacking at gunpoint.

The teenager was taken into custody after a 69-year-old woman was killed and two police officers injured in the “harrowing” collision on Thursday.

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Community mourns ‘passionate’ young rapper killed in Melbourne as alleged shooter remains on the run

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Friends warned against seeking retribution after man in his 20s dies of gunshot wounds in North Melbourne

Family and friends are grieving the loss of a “talented and sociable” young rapper who died after he was allegedly shot by a man who remains on the run.

The man in his 20s was found with gunshot wounds on Langford Street in North Melbourne about 3.15am on Saturday and died at the scene.

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Australia news live: PwC reveals it sacked eight staff over data breaches; Perth man dies after being taken to police watch house

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Court to rule in Pauline Hanson-Mehreen Faruqi case

A federal court judge is ready to rule on whether Pauline Hanson made a racial slur when she told Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi to go back to Pakistan.

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NSW police dogs died in car’s special cooling ‘pod’ when engine switched off, force says

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Investigation under way into whether mechanical failure resulted in deaths of German shepherds Xtra and Soldier in Sydney

New South Wales police are investigating whether engine failure led to a police car’s air conditioning failing and the subsequent death of two police dogs inside a special “dog pod”.

The German shepherds Xtra and Soldier were found dead inside the police vehicle by their handler on Thursday at about 12.30pm.

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‘Hold your little ones really tight’: how an ordinary Melbourne primary school pick-up turned to tragedy

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Auburn South primary school community mourns car crash victim Jack Davey, 11, as four students remain in hospital

It was an afternoon recess on what should have been an ordinary, sunny spring Tuesday at Auburn South primary school.

Within the grounds of the Melbourne school, five primary school students were seated around an outdoor table overlooking a soccer pitch. Moments later, the scene turned to one of horror.

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NSW police fight to stop Newcastle port ‘protestival’ in second court challenge to protests in a month

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Rising Tide event would involve thousands of paddling climate activists blocking coal exports

The New South Wales police force is challenging a planned protest through the supreme court for the second time this month – this time an event in Newcastle calling for climate action.

The November protest is organised by Rising Tide and known as the “People’s Blockade of the World’s Largest Coal Port”. It would involve thousands of activists paddling into the Port of Newcastle on kayaks and rafts to stop coal exports from leaving Newcastle for 50 hours.

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Shock and grief as boy, 11, dies and four children injured after car crashes through Melbourne school fence

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Victorian premier says ‘dark shadow’ has been cast over city after collision at Auburn South primary school in Hawthorn East

A child has died and four others remain in hospital with serious injuries after a car crashed into a school in Melbourne’s inner east.

Emergency services rushed to the collision that occurred just after 2.30pm on Tuesday afternoon at Auburn South primary school in Hawthorn East.

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