'Shambolic' record-keeping blamed as thousands of police ballistic vests vanish

A damning audit reveals NSW Police destroyed thousands of ballistic vests without proper records, raising fears the classified weapons could have reached criminal hands.

Former cop turned independent MP Rod Roberts first exposed the missing vests in parliament last year. Rohan Kelly

NSW Police lost track of thousands of ballistic vests due to “shambolic and inadequate” systems plagued by “substandard and unacceptable” record-keeping.

A damning NSW Police audit has found “the vast majority if not all” missing ballistic vests were destroyed without proper paperwork.

The audit, led by Deputy Commissioner David Hudson, was launched after the force lost track of more than 5500 ballistic vests.

Mr Hudson previously told budget estimates he could not guarantee the armour – classified as a banned weapon – had not fallen into the hands of criminals.

A NSW Police command in a large regional centre has been caught out stuffing bullet proof vests into a commercial skip bin along with police jackets, caps, and weapon holsters. Picture Supplied.

However, a massive audit of the missing vests has now determined that most if not all of the missing vests were thrown out.

Almost 940 vests still remain “unaccounted for”.

“It is believed the vast majority if not all of this number can be attributed to errors of record keeping and unrecorded disposals,” minister Tara Moriarty said in answers to parliamentary questions.

The NSW Police Force Armoury has now been put in charge to keep track of all ballistic vests.

The audit revealed “a pre-existing regime over many years that was substandard and unacceptable”, Ms Moriarty, representing Police Minister Yasmin Catley, said.

The system for “managing and auditing vests across NSW was shambolic and inadequate”, she said.

Under the previous system, vests were thrown out by individual commands without proper record-keeping, rather than returned to a “central point” for disposal.

The Daily Telegraph has previously revealed photos of old ballistic vests tossed into skip bins at a regional NSW Police command, in a blatant failure of protocol.

A bin with police vests inside. Picture Supplied

“NSWPF advise that the regrettable problems and inadequacies identified by the audit have been resolved going forward by this new centralised regime,” Ms Moriarty said.

Ms Catley said the “shambolic” systems for managing police vests dated back to the Coalition government.

“I am advised that to date, there is no evidence that any vests have turned up in nefarious hands,” she said.

“The public should have confidence in this new system.”

Former cop turned independent MP Rod Roberts first exposed the missing vests in parliament last year.

He praised new NSW Police commissioner Mal Lanyon for coming clean on the problems he inherited.

“We now have accountability, responsibility, transparency,” he said.

“This commissioner has admitted to the mistakes of the NSW Police Force has put in place policies and procedures to ensure it won’t happen again,” he said.

The Telegraph previously revealed findings of the audit which uncovered the missing vests.

The latest probe was launched under former commissioner Karen Webb after “inconsistencies” with earlier attempts to track down vests that had been unaccounted for.

A trove of documents released to parliament last year found also revealed that the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission (LECC) had asked Ms Webb in June 2022 to explain why more than “1000” ballistic vests had gone missing.

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Originally published as 'Shambolic' record-keeping blamed as thousands of police ballistic vests vanish