BackOn 20 December 2016, the Acting NSW Ombudsman, Professor John McMillan AO, tabled his report on the Operation Prospect investigation. The six volume report culminates the largest investigation to have been undertaken by an Ombudsman in Australia.
Operation Prospect began in October 2012 when the NSW Premier asked the Ombudsman to investigate a controversy in NSW policing and corruption investigation that had been simmering for more than a decade. In order to do this, the Ombudsman was given new powers and additional resources to comprehensively examine a range of complaints and allegations about conduct of the NSW Police Force, NSW Crime Commission and the Police Integrity Commission.
The Operation Prospect investigation was conducted in private using the traditional ‘inquisitorial’ Ombudsman method, and included a rigorous procedural fairness process. Over a four year period, the investigation team handled more than 330 complaints, enquiries and public interest disclosures regarding the matters under investigation, assembled over one million pages of source documents, and conducted 107 hearings and 67 interviews with 131 witnesses.
There was considerable public controversy about the matters under investigation during the course of the investigation. This included two parliamentary inquiries into the conduct of the investigation, unsuccessful litigation to restrain the publication of the Ombudsman’s report, regular correspondence with legal representatives, and media coverage.
The Operation Prospect report places as much detail on the public record as possible, while balancing individuals’ legitimate expectations of privacy. It is published on the Ombudsman’s website.
Source: Ombudsman New South Wales, Australia
