By Jordan Baker and Clare Sibthorpe
Two off-duty NSW Police officers used their service firearms to die by suicide between 2020 and 2023, and the force has held more than 20 investigations into the possession of firearms by off-duty officers in the past five years.
Police also said almost 1700 potential recruits were sent for an interview with the psychological unit over the same period after an issue was flagged in their psychometric test, but only 66 of those were knocked back.
An alleged double murder by a NSW Police officer with his service pistol in February raised questions about how well the force tracks police firearms, especially when they are in the possession of off-duty police, and how effectively it scrutinises potential recruits for psychological issues.
Former senior constable Beau Lamarre-Condon is accused of checking his pistol out of Miranda police station for an extra shift, using it to murder Jesse Baird and Luke Davies, and then returning it to a station a few days later, all without suspicion.
Police data given to parliament show there had already been issues with off-duty police and their weapons before the alleged double murder.
Two officers died by suicide using their police firearm while off-duty in the past five years, one in the 2020-21 financial year, and the other in 2022-23.
The data show there have been 12 complaints about a firearm in the possession of a police officer since mid-2019, and 14 reports by police officers about a firearm in the possession of an off-duty police officer. There were 22 investigations.
A file photo of officers from the anti-bikie taskforce Strike Force Raptor.Credit: NSW Police
Greens MP and justice spokeswoman Sue Higginson said the new data revealed a clear history of complaints from outside and within the police force about firearms in the custody of off-duty police officers before February’s tragedy.
“The failure to take responsibility and track and monitor firearms access and use by the NSW Police has inevitably contributed to the [alleged] murder of Jesse Baird and Luke Davies,” she said.
Higginson also raised concerns that the proportion of potential recruitments rejected for psychological reasons was falling. There were 70 knocked back in 2018-19 and 19 in 2022-23.
Each potential recruit sits a psychometric test to assess their mental fitness for a difficult job. If there is an issue, recruits are either rejected on the basis of the test results or sent for an assessment with the police psychology unit.
“It’s very concerning that standards of entry to the NSW Police might be declining because there is greater pressure to meet recruitment numbers,” Higginson said.
Since mid-2019, 161 recruits have been rejected on the results of their test alone.
Police Commissioner Karen Webb promised a six-week inquiry by Victoria Police into the rules governing gun safety in the days after the alleged double murder in late February. More than two months have passed.
Police later clarified it would be an internal review of policies and procedures that would be reviewed by Victoria. “It is progressing and is currently with the Victorian Police for review,” NSW Police said in a statement.
Most of NSW’s 17,000 sworn police officers are issued with a Glock pistol, with a magazine capacity ranging from nine to 17 rounds.
General duties police must check their weapons into a gun safe at their regular police station at the end of a shift. Firearms are audited by a senior officer at each area command weekly and ammunition is audited quarterly.
Beau Lamarre-Condon (left) has been charged with the murder of Jesse Baird and Luke Davies.
NSW Police told a NSW state parliamentary committee: “This is risk-based and the frequency can be increased or decreased.”
However, police officers who do not work out of a station and who operate across a wider area, such as youth command (where Lamarre-Condon worked) or prosecutors, and those working at stations that are not manned full-time, can move weapons between stations and to different commands.
This can include home storage if permission is granted.
Police can also check out their guns if they take a “user pays” shift in another region. These are extra shifts in which police earn time and a half by providing security for private event organisers, who pick up the bill. They use their police-issue equipment. Lamarre-Condon allegedly took his gun for a user pays event.
When asked by the committee if rosters were checked before officers were allowed to take their firearm, police said, “where the opportunity arises, the roster may be checked and face-to-face interaction occurs to determine if an officer is accessing their arms and appointments for legitimate operational reasons”.
In answers to questions from the parliamentary committee about the tracking of guns, NSW Police said much of its information from gun checks was held at local area command level, so it could not provide any centralised data.
When asked how many rounds of ammunition were fired from firearms eligible to be stored elsewhere, police said they could not answer the question as “there were no extractable fields in the COPS database” that record the number of rounds fired.
“Additionally, it is not possible to account for whether the firearm was checked out for extraordinary duties,” police told the committee.
Police also said they did not know how many serving officers were restricted from accessing a firearm because that information was “not held centrally”.
Domestic violence advocates are particularly concerned about loose gun monitoring in cases where an officer is the perpetrator. Police said 57 serving officers had been charged with domestic violence offences, including one facing 44 charges of domestic violence-related assault.
Higginson said the failure to hold key firearm data centrally meant even the executive officers at police headquarters could not get a full picture of the movement and storage of firearms.
“They just don’t know,” she said. “We are at the point where we can show that this level of transparency is way below public expectations. We deserve and demand a better level of accountability. It’s a really broad public interest issue.”
Since 2018, police said there were three cases of firearm misuse. One officer was given a warning and put on a conduct management plan, one was given counselling, and another was also put on a conduct management plan.