Wood Royal Commission

The Royal Commission into the New South Wales Police Service (Wood Royal Commission) was held in the State of New South Wales, Australia between 1995 and 1997. The Royal Commissioner was Justice James Roland Wood. The terms of reference were to determine the existence and extent of corruption within the New South Wales Police; specifically, it sought to determine whether corruption and misconduct were "systemic and entrenched" within the service, and to advise on the process to address such a problem.

In 1995, the Commission received letters patent widening the terms of reference to include investigating the activities of organised paedophile networks in New South Wales, the suitability of care arrangements for at-risk minors and the effectiveness of police guidelines for the investigation of sex-offences against minors.

The Commission was granted considerable powers, even by the standards of a Royal Commission; in addition to the usual power to compel attendance, the giving of evidence and the production of documents and self-certification of warrants for electronic surveillance, bugs and telephone intercepts. Commission officers were permitted to carry firearms and were conferred the powers of a constable of the NSW Police Service. Most notably, lying to or misleading the Commission was an offence carrying a sentence of up to 6 months imprisonment.

In contrast to the usual structure of Royal Commissions, which are staffed primarily by lawyers and administrators, the commission had three investigation teams composed of lawyers, accountants, investigators and current and former officers from every Australian and common-law jurisdiction excepting New South Wales. The commission also acquired the equipment and expertise so that it possessed the sophisticated covert surveillance capabilities it would need to effectively monitor the activities of groups of corrupt police officers and organised criminals.

By 1995, the Commission had uncovered hundreds of instances of bribery, money laundering, drug trafficking, fabrication of evidence, destruction of evidence, fraud and serious assaults in just the detective division of the Kings Cross patrol. Participation in misconduct was universal in the detective division of the Kings Cross patrol, and the senior levels of the branch had detective sergeants and the chief detective in a permanent corrupt relationship with major drug traffickers and the local criminal milieu. The Kings Cross detectives received payments akin to a "rent" from individuals like Bill Bayeh, Stave Hardas and "Fat" George; the payments totalled thousands of dollars per week, collected by Sergeant Trevor Haken and shared amongst the six detective sergeants and the chief detective (Chook Fowler). This corrupt practice was known in police circles as "the laugh".

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