Police oversight bosses quit, axed after internal brawl
A clash within the NSW Law Enforcement Conduct Commission ended with its chief commissioner stepping down and a top lieutenant losing his job.
A clash of egos at the highest levels of the NSW Law Enforcement Conduct Commission ended with its chief commissioner stepping down and a top lieutenant losing his job following an independent inquiry into toxicity within the organisation.
The investigation conducted by Bruce McClintock, assistant inspector of the LECC, concluded that relations between its commissioner for oversight, Patrick Saidi, and its chief commissioner, Michael Adams, had broken down to such an extent that it would “damage the operational capacity” of the agency.
Mr McClintock was appointed to conduct an inquiry after Mr Saidi made a lengthy complaint about his boss on June 18.
His complaint alleged Mr Adams was managing the organisation in an “autocratic manner”, and that Mr Saidi was being excluded from management decisions.
The inquiry ultimately dismissed these allegations against Mr Adams. Instead, it weighed misconduct findings against Mr Saidi over threats he made to oppose certain investigations if he wasn’t given more resources to conduct his own projects.
“While I believe I should express my disapproval in the strongest terms about Mr Saidi’s threats, and I do so, I do not believe it is necessary to go further and make a formal finding of misconduct,” Mr McClintock wrote in his report.
The LECC was formed in 2017 through a merger of oversight agencies, including the Police Integrity Commission, the Inspector of the NSW Crime Commission and the policing division of the NSW Ombudsman’s office. During 2018 and 2019, it received 2547 complaints relating to issues in the NSW Police Force and the NSW Crime Commission.
Mr McClintock’s investigation found acrimony at the commission started when Mr Saidi, one of three people in charge of decision-making at the organisation, was vetoed on an effort to start his own investigation into financial losses incurred by police during civil cases of wrongdoing.
When the idea was pitched to Mr Adams and another commissioner, Lea Drake, it was vetoed because of issues of relevance with the agency’s function and priorities.
Mr Saidi alleged in his complaint that Mr Adams and Ms Drake were “close friends” and their relationship went back many years, which effectively neutered his role in decision-making.
“The closeness of their relationship, in my eyes, led to their making decisions involving LECC without consultation with me. At any and at all times, I could be outvoted in relation to any proposal,” Mr Saidi wrote.
The inquiry dismissed this claim, and others, including an allegation that Mr Adams had behaved in an autocratic fashion, and had misused funds to send a LECC officer overseas.
Despite the inquiry clearing the chief commissioner, it exposed a level of dysfunction that forced Mr Adams to step aside from his role in December.
Neither man responded to requests for comment.
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