NSW Police have rejected a recommendation to stop doing informal interviews with suspected criminals despite a scathing investigation finding the force had systematically compromised the right to silence of young people.
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The state's police watchdog, the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission, last year investigated the force's practices relating to interviewing and managing young people in custody and the use of body worn video by plain clothes officers.
A scathing report released in December found NSW Police had failed to fix problematic interview practices despite issues raised by courts.
The commission made 19 recommendations, three of which were directed at the state's attorney general.
The commission on Tuesday released NSW Police response to the report, with the force supporting three of the recommendations, giving in principle support for eight and continuing to consider another four.
But it rejected four recommendations, including one relating to informal interview practices.
The commission recommended people suspected of criminal offences should not be interviewed by informal means, such as when they are in a dock area of a police station, unless there are strong reasons to do so
Police did not support this recommendation because officers sometimes spoke to people suspected of committing criminal offences but who were never taken to a station.
The force said these people were likely to be issued cautions or court attendance notices, which were recorded in police notebooks.
"The NSWPF asserts that many discussions are conducted in what the commission refers to as informal means, even though there is formality to the process," the police response said.
"This is part of basic policing and instruction in this commences at the police academy.
"It is the responsibility of a NSWPF officer investigating a crime to ask questions and record the answers (and) this responsibility commences from the moment they engage with a suspect."
The report followed a Law Enforcement Conduct Commission investigation into the September 2022 arrest of a 14-year-old Indigenous boy in northern NSW.
The boy was tackled to the ground by plain clothes officers and suffered a head injury requiring treatment in hospital before he was discharged to the local police station.
Despite telling his lawyer from the Aboriginal Legal Service over the phone he wanted to exercise his right to silence, the boy was questioned by two officers later that morning.
The commission found it was not an isolated incident, but no action had been taken by police to address those issues despite examples being raised by the courts over several years.
Australian Associated Press
