A woman who experienced years of violence and abuse by her police officer partner — one of relatively few officers convicted of their domestic violence charges in recent years — says NSW Police must urgently overhaul the way it deals with perpetrators in its ranks and fix glaring "cultural problems" that left her feeling like she was up against an "army" in the force even after her ex was charged.
"I'm sick of my story but I want to talk about it so the next woman after me gets a better response than I did," Josie* told ABC News. "I was treated well by the police officers who dealt with me directly, the investigators were respectful and thorough. It's the broader force I have a problem with ... the way they close ranks, how they protect their employee first, then the victim."
Josie's ex Brett* was last year convicted in the NSW Local Court of a string of domestic violence charges including several counts of assault, assault occasioning actual bodily harm, intimidation, perverting the course of justice, breaching his AVO and other serious offences. He was sentenced to 18 months' imprisonment to be served in the community via intensive correction orders, a two-year community correction order and fined several thousand dollars.
An experienced officer who once posed for photos in a local newspaper promoting domestic violence policing strategies, Brett resigned from the force after he was convicted. But his appeal to the District Court, which was eventually dismissed, dragged out the justice process into an "arduous and harrowing" two-year ordeal for Josie.
"I got the best outcome you could hope for but it was a lose-lose situation. I felt terrible for [Brett] ... I didn't want him to go to jail," she said. "At first I didn't want him to lose his job either, but I came to realise that people who misuse their power like that shouldn't be police officers."
ABC News earlier this week revealed 27 NSW police officers were charged with domestic violence in 2019 and 2020. Of five senior officers who were convicted and four found guilty without conviction, six have kept their jobs, shocking victim advocates and raising questions about the force's commitment to addressing the scourge of abuse in its ranks.
The new figures add to mounting evidence the NSW Police Force — like other Australian law enforcement agencies — has too often been failing to take action against abusive officers, with victims frequently reporting they've been discouraged from raising allegations or that their safety has been put at risk when they have sought help from police.
It comes following a scathing assessment of how state police are responding to domestic violence across the board, with the auditor-general last week finding numerous flaws and failures in the force's domestic violence operations, including with its handling of investigations into serving officers.
'No one will believe you'
Brett's abuse began early in their relationship, Josie said, and changed noticeably when he became a cop. For years, though, she swallowed his cheating and chipping away at her self-esteem, focusing instead on raising their young children.
"I think he was very smart, and he got smarter as he climbed the ranks and became more powerful," she said. "As his confidence and arrogance grew at work, it also seemed to grow in our relationship. I felt like he was getting higher and higher above me and I was getting lower and lower."
If Josie was distraught and sobbing during an argument, she said, Brett would tell her she had mental health problems, that he could have her sectioned. When he pushed her head into a brick wall one summer evening, he used Brisbane mother Hannah Clarke's brutal killing as a warning: "You should think of that woman in Queensland and what happens when you push people too far."
Though in court he denied doing so, he'd threatened her with his police gun magazine more than once, she said. He'd also talked about murder and how to get away with it — that if he was ever going to kill someone he would shoot them and throw them down a mineshaft, make a homicide look like a suicide. He knew the system, she believed him.
But like so many other domestic violence victims of serving police officers, reporting Brett's abuse, getting help, didn't seem like an option. In Josie's close-knit community everyone knew everyone — and everyone loved Brett.
"I knew he was very popular, very well liked at work ... and he'd say, 'No one will believe you, I've told everyone at work you're crazy'," she said. "When you're married to an officer who's violent, you can't just ring the police. I truly, utterly believed that I'd be on my own if I reported it and he would have this army behind him. That's what I believed."
'My world felt like it was falling apart'
When Josie did finally, reluctantly make a statement to police — "I was so miserable and broken, I was starting to drown" — she was shocked by their swift response. An AVO was taken out, charges were laid and an inspector told her sternly that he didn't want domestic abusers in his command.
But her worst fears were realised when a senior officer close to the investigation told her many high-ranking police thought she was lying. Officers were overheard gossiping about the case at work and in the community, suggesting Josie was crazy and making it all up, that it was "f**ked" what was happening to Brett.
"It felt like I was up against the NSW Police," she said. "When police were saying those things about me, they've got credibility, they're in uniform — people must believe it as fact even though it was completely untrue."
There were several moments when she considered pulling out altogether.
For instance, after Brett had been charged and suspended with pay, a group of his colleagues held a send-off for him at a local brewery, before he went on holiday. When she saw a post about the event on Facebook, Josie was devastated. "It sent me a message that he had all his friends around him ... meanwhile my world felt like it was falling apart," she said. "If I didn't have so much support ... there is no way I would have got through the court process."
Josie was also alarmed that a colleague of Brett's, with whom he was having an undisclosed affair, had access to his complaint files and conversations about the investigation. Her access was eventually restricted but Josie worried it could jeopardise the criminal case because the employee was suspected to be relaying information to Brett and other officers.
"My statements contained private information that I've never even shared with my closest friends and family, so to hear that she was discussing it with other police was horrifying — I felt so exposed and vulnerable," she said. "She should have disclosed they were in a relationship up front and ... they might have taken measures to manage the conflict of interest and stopped her from having access [to sensitive information] sooner."
(Josie made a formal complaint about the employee's behaviour, arguing it amounted to professional misconduct. She later received a letter from the force's Professional Standards Command stating that enquiries had been completed, issues had been "addressed and managed accordingly" and that no further investigation would be conducted.)
A force for change
Now Josie wants NSW Police to implement more rigorous policies for dealing with domestic violence matters involving serving officers: so that police aren't allowed to investigate their close colleagues, conflicts of interest are identified and managed swiftly, and victims can feel confident they'll be believed if they report abuse.
"Investigations into police officers need to be completely transparent and uncontaminated and that is not possible if people who are in any way connected with the person under investigation are involved," she said.
She also wants police to undergo more comprehensive domestic violence training and for employees who engage in professional misconduct to be held accountable — perhaps that might help shift problematic cultures in parts of the force.
At times Josie felt police were more focused on "controlling damage" than looking out for her safety. "There were multiple breaches of the AVO that weren't pursued," she said, adding that maybe if police had acted more swiftly when Brett first breached his AVO, he might not have continued offending. "It felt like they were trying to contain a situation."
To that end, the NSW auditor-general's performance audit released last week found reports about domestic violence by serving officers were sometimes investigated at the commands where accused employees work, potentially creating conflicts of interest and implications for victims' safety and privacy. It recommended the NSW Police Force review its processes for investigating such matters and implement procedures to safeguard their independence and mitigate conflicts of interest.
The audit also found the force does not mandate or even set expectations for domestic violence training once police officer recruits have completed their probationary training, and that any additional training and capability assessment generally occurs online, and at the discretion of local commanders. It's a striking finding given police in NSW spend upwards of 50 per cent of their time in any given week dealing with domestic violence.
Weeding out toxic cultures
Police Commissioner Karen Webb said she was "disappointed" to hear about the difficulties Josie faced but that she was committed to stamping out harmful cultures and "mitigating" the audit office's recommendations.
"I'm pleased ... the investigators for her matter were very professional, and she was happy with their support. But I have also said publicly that the culture of the force will be one of my priorities. So where I've got pockets of that ... that needs to be weeded out," Commissioner Webb said. "But equally, it's a big police force. And it's not acceptable, but if that's occurring then I want to know about it and I would seek to eradicate it because that does make it challenging for victims to come forward."
As for claims by victims and police accountability experts that police in NSW too often mismanage domestic violence reports involving serving officers — and that many victims have been treated poorly — Commissioner Webb said that was not her experience working with domestic violence support services over the years. "I've found that ... if there's concerns to be raised, they raise them with commanders or at senior levels of the organisation ... and I think we are mature in the way that we manage it."
Of course, Josie has a very different take — as do many other victim-survivors. It's not always possible to raise allegations of domestic violence or toxic police cultures in the moment; some women say they've been threatened and intimidated by local officers for doing exactly that.
Which is why Josie just wants things to change, for victims to feel supported, not exposed. "From the start investigations have got to be victim-centred, all about protecting them," she said. "And I don't feel that's how it is right now."
*Names have been changed for legal and safety reasons.
