Michael McGowan reports for The Guardian Australia
Two days before Christmas, as bushfires raged across New South Wales, the special minister of state, Don Harwin, quietly announced the departure of the chief commissioner of the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission, Michael Adams QC.
The timing was interesting.
Adams, the inaugural head of the police watchdog introduced in 2017 to replace the Police Integrity Commission, the Ombudsman and the NSW Crime Commission, was part way through leading an explosive inquiry into the use of strip-search powers on minors by police.
In the most high profile investigation undertaken in the agency’s short history, two sets of public hearings uncovered evidence of police conducting potentially illegal searches on children and revealed many police did not understand the laws governing strip searches.
In once case, a 15-year-old boy said he “shook with nerves” after a police officer told him to “hold your dick and lift your balls up and show me your gooch” during a search at an under-18s music festival in February last year.
The investigation had no yet concluded. In December, Adams said further hearings slated for late January or February would “focus on the psychological issues raised by strip-searching of young persons” and that the LECC would review whether it was legal for officers to force people to squat and cough during a strip search.
But this week the Guardian revealed that following Adam’s departure, the hearings will no longer go ahead.
Sam Lee, police accountability solicitor at the Redfern Legal Centre, said the government needed to be more transparent about the reasons for Adams removal.
“An independent police watchdog plays a pivotal role in ensuring the integrity and accountability of NSW police,” she said. Any disruption to this body via the removal of its chief commissioner should also be transparent and accountable.”
Read the full article here (The Guardian Australia, 9 February 2020)
