Focus on police gun rules, vetting

The arrest of NSW police constable Beau Lamarre-Condon, 28, for the alleged murder of Jesse Baird, 26, a former Channel 10 presenter, and Luke Davies, 29, a Qantas flight attendant, has focused attention on the recruitment vetting and oversight of young police officers. Constable Lamarre-Condon, Mr Baird’s former partner, who is understood to have joined the force as a probationary constable in 2018, was charged with the murders after he turned himself in at Bondi police station on Friday morning. Police allege he used his police-issue Glock pistol in the killings at a home in Paddington on Monday last week. Police have confirmed Constable Lamarre-Condon signed out the weapon from Miranda police station on February 16, claiming he was taking it to a “user pays” overtime shift at a pro-Palestine rally in Sydney.

As NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb said on Monday: “It is a failure if somebody has used the service firearm in the manner it is alleged, so a review is necessary.” If procedures needed to be improved they would be, she said.

All applicants who apply to join the NSW Police Force complete psychometric assessment to evaluate their psychological suitability for the role of a police officer. As they must, senior police are now investigating Constable Lamarre-Condon’s psychiatric evaluation when he joined and other initial recruitment information.

Recruitment of new police officers has become harder since the pandemic, when the standing of police suffered as they had to enforce unpopular rules. In November last year the Minns government revealed NSW police had 1500 vacancies – about 9 per cent of authorised positions. Victoria has cut the opening hours of more than 43 police stations to free up frontline staff at peak times. The Queensland Police Service, where the average base salary of officers is $100,000, with about $16,000 in extra pay, is also short of recruits.

Before he became a policeman, Constable Lamarre-Condon was a celebrity blogger, obsessed with seeking out, meeting and being photographed with high-profile visitors to Sydney such as Khloe Kardashian, Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, Dua Lipa and Harry Styles. As a policeman in 2020, Constable Lamarre-Condon was accused of using excessive force when a video of him tasering a man in the face during an arrest went viral. He was cleared of wrongdoing. There are a great many questions that need to be answered in this tragic case. One is: Were there any signs that should have prevented the constable from being recruited to NSW Police in the first place?