Former members of a bias crimes unit within NSW Police were warned to "do what we were told and shut up" when the team was unexpectedly disbanded, an inquiry has been told.
The inquiry is holding public hearings in Sydney as it investigates dozens of unsolved deaths in NSW between 1970 and 2010, which may have been the result of LGBT hate attacks.
Sergeant Geoff Steer, NSW Police's first hate crime coordinator when the position was created in 2007 following the Cronulla riots, was one of only four members of the bias crimes unit when it was effectively disbanded in 2015, after only two years.
His role covered not only LGBT-related bias, but other forms including religion or racial-based bias.
Asked why he left, Sergeant Steer said he needed to be "as diplomatic as possible", before offering "internal politics" as the answer.
"I walked into work one day, I was told by my commander … we'd just been transferred to counterterrorism," he told the inquiry.
He said it came without any consultation, and a few days later he had a meeting with a then-acting commander.
"He basically told us that we were attached to fixated persons [unit], we weren't doing hate crimes anymore, we were to do what we were told and shut up.
"I politely pointed out to him that I will be transferring out of the unit."
Sergeant Steer, who now works as a general duties team leader in the Hawkesbury, told the hearing that "reliable sources" told him he was "not popular" in his hate crime role and "the intent was to get rid of me".
He was asked about a fiery email he sent in 2018 to Assistant Commissioner Anthony Crandell in response to a newspaper article in which the assistant commissioner criticised assessment tools for bias crimes as being not practical for everyday policing.
""From the outset, the unit was not popular, because there is a belief that we're a multicultural society and everything works well," he told the hearing when asked to elaborate on his email.
"The fact that we have a unit that says people don't get on, that there are issues, was always at odds with that belief system.
"So there was always a tension between what we did because we were identifying issues that people would prefer not get raised."
Sergeant Steer claimed he spent half of his seven years in hate crime-related roles defending everything he did.
"It was seven years of trying to convince an organisation that wasn't interested in hate crimes to take it seriously, that there are positive outcomes when you do take hate crime seriously."
He has previously been described by the Counsel Assisting, Peter Gray SC, as "the personification … of the expertise available to the New South Wales Police about bias crime".
Sergeant Steer borrowed from a US model when integrating hate crime indicators into the standard operating procedures for the bias crimes unit.
He also set up Operation Parrabell, hoping to conduct a "comprehensive hate crime assessment" of historical unsolved deaths in NSW.
While that project was suspended due to a lack of resources, it was reactivated later as Strike Force Parrabell, which ultimately reviewed 88 deaths between 1976 and 2000 that may have involved anti-gay motives.
In his witness statement, Sergeant Steer said that a "bias crime indicator review form" used by Parrabell investigators was based on "an incorrect understanding of what the indicators are and how to use them".
He raised "serious concerns" with his chain of command about a lack of consultation between strike force members and the bias crimes unit.
The inquiry, headed by Justice John Sackar, continues on Tuesday.
