News

Photo credit: Rusty Stewart, Flickr Redfern Legal Centre and UNSW Law will host a public forum on police accountability in NSW, Thursday 30th July, at NSW Parliament House.

The NSW election in March brought with it a commitment from the Government to review police oversight in NSW.

The RLC Police Powers Clinic is an educational program run in conjunction with the University of New South Wales. UNSW students spend one day a week at RLC over a semester, putting their legal knowledge into practice working on police issues.

Tek sought advice from RLC after he sustained injuries when being ejected from a local police station.

The NSW Ombudsman released a report in August 2014, on the effect of expanded police powers introduced in 2011 to assist police responses to alcohol-fuelled violence, predominantly intended for behaviour in entertainment districts at night.

RLC has experienced a recent spike in people contacting us for advice about DNA collection by NSW Police.

New legislation is being introduced to change the powers of police in variety of ways.

The New South Wales Government has passed further law and order legislation, with highly publicised mandatory sentencing legislation expected to follow now that parliament has resumed.

Two months before Barry O’Farrell announced the ‘one punch’ laws, he passed a different law that expands police powers to arrest without warrant.

The NSW Government has passed the Law Enforcement (Power and Responsibility) Amendment (Arrest without Warrant) Bill 2013, legislation that will allow police to apply a lower standard when deciding whether or not to make arrests.