Police have blamed a NSW probe into gay hate crimes for delays in reviewing unsolved homicide cases during discussions with bereaved family members.
The latest stoush between the inquiry into LGBTQI hate crimes and NSW Police erupted after a special commission confirmed that excuse had been provided to families on at least four separate occasions.
However, officers failed to mention extra resources had been needed to respond to the inquiry because of historically poor record-keeping on the part of police, which led to many key documents and pieces of evidence being lost.
Counsel representing the inquiry James Emmett said such statements by police were concerning and could be regarded as misleading by omission.
"To the extent it has been resource-intensive to respond to summonses by this inquiry, the evidence indicates that this was due to the state of the NSW Police records and to the inadequacy of the police force's initial response to summonses last year," he said on Wednesday.
"If members of the public were to be told anything in connection to this inquiry's operation and other matters in the unsolved homicide team, this full picture needed to be provided."
Counsel representing NSW Police Mark Tedeschi confirmed homicide squad head Danny Doherty had instructed officers that no further statements of the kind about the inquiry were to be made.
Extensive resources had been needed to comply with the inquiry, which had already cost NSW Police an estimated $5.2 million, he said.
"Various requests, summonses, written statements (and) inquiries, highlight the positive approach and the very co-operative support provided by NSW Police to this inquiry and the importance it prescribes to the work that the inquiry is doing," he said.
"We submit this indicates the degree of the (police) commissioner's support for the important work that this inquiry is undertaking."
The broad-ranging inquiry is probing unsolved suspected hate crime deaths of LGBTQI people in NSW between 1970 and 2010, including whether possible bias on the part of police officers impacted investigations.
Inquiry commissioner John Sackar accepted Mr Tedeschi's explanation but reiterated his concern that similar police statements could denigrate the inquiry's work in the minds of the public.
"The mere fact that members of the public might have gleaned from whatever police officers were telling them that their cases had to be re-prioritised or moved down the line because of this inquiry did not confront a very real problem," he said.
"The real problem is that all of the records, which each inquiry summons lawfully directed the police to provide, were their own records.
"Much of the cause of the extra resources and additional resources was either the belated or the ultimate realisation that (police) had to look in multiple repositories."
The commissioner said it was unfortunate a "half-baked, half-true story" had been provided to members of the public.
The inquiry continues on Thursday.
