‘Inadequate’: NSW police criticised for not getting out of cars after triple zero call reported woman being bashed | Australian police and policing

At 7pm on January 3, 2023, New South Wales police received a triple zero call reporting a woman being “battered” behind the Salvation Army building in Ballina.

“Just so you know, there’s a woman who got beaten behind the Salvation Army in Ballina and that’s all I have to say, I don’t want to be reported or anything,” the caller said.

Almost six hours later, the woman’s partner of five years, who was later convicted for her death, walked into Ballina police station. He said he thought his partner, Lindy Lucena, was dead. He then led police to a covered area on the side of the Salvation Army building, where they found his body.

What happened in the hours from the time the first call was made until Robert Huber led police to the body of 64-year-old Lucena was investigated by the independent police watchdog after his family and Greens MP Sue Higginson raised concerns.

On Tuesday, the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission (Lecc) presented its final report. There was no evidence of misconduct, but inadequate police response was determined when two police officers arrived at the scene but did not get out of their own cars, and Lucena lay dying or dead nearby.

The Lecc report found that systemic problems may have contributed to the delayed response.

delayed response

Three minutes after the emergency call was made, it was recorded in the police dispatch system as priority 2 work.

The report stated that police procedures required all “reasonable efforts” to be made to broadcast priority 2 business within 90 seconds. However, the first broadcast was made at 19.10, seven minutes after the call was recorded, due to an error made by the dispatch assistant.

Although a reasonable effort should be made to republish an unanswered priority 2 job every 60 seconds, the job was published a second time at 19.24 and a third time at 19.34.

The commission found that it was “appropriate” for police to prioritize evening work and noted that the two responding officers were caught responding to a minor traffic accident.

Officers were “also impressed by the fact that only one person called police to report the assault, leading to the assumption that the assault was not serious or had been stopped,” the report said.

However, when the two police officers, whose names were not mentioned in the report, responded 45 minutes after the first broadcast, they did not get out of their vehicles and search the area.

Tuesday’s report stated, “Officers C and D attended the incident in separate cars and slowly drove towards Holden Lane. Within 3.5 minutes, the officers returned to duty stating that they did not see anything.”

The watchdog found that not getting out of the cars amounted to “insufficient police response”.

“Officers C and D had absolutely no knowledge that Ms. Lucena had been seriously assaulted and died, possibly hidden behind a fence, within a few meters of police vehicles,” the report stated.

“Staying in the lane but not exiting the vehicle does not give rise to a potential criminal offense and does not warrant serious disciplinary action. He did not meet the minimum standards of policing but is not serious misconduct.”

The report concluded: “It is not open to the commission to find that the officers could have saved Ms. Lucena’s life if they had abandoned their car.”

Officer C said that although he wished he had exited the vehicle during the investigation, he did not think there was anything he should have done differently from a procedural standpoint. The other responding officer, D, rejected the suggestion that they should go around the building.

Huber, 69, was acquitted of murder but convicted of manslaughter in Lucena in July 2025. He was sentenced to almost 13 years in prison.

Coroner Stephen Rothman found that Lucena likely died “around 7.20pm” or “just after 9.30pm” due to a combination of factors and not just from injuries sustained from the beating.

The police watchdog found that assistant commissioner Tracy Chapman and other senior officers seriously considered declaring Lucena’s death a critical incident investigation; this is usually declared in cases where a person is seriously injured or killed during a police operation.

A critical incident investigation was not announced, and Chapman did not document his decision on what became known as form P1179. The watchdog found this did not amount to serious misconduct, but noted that police gave a “misleading” response after requesting to see form P1179 and were told “he did not have to do this” rather than explaining that it did not exist.

In February, police commissioner Mal Lanyon’s legal counsel made a presentation regarding the Lecc investigation.

He warned the watchdog not to subject officers to “unfair public attack” and noted that officers were doing the best they could under “challenging circumstances”.

Attorney Tim Smartt rejected the commission’s preliminary recommendations, writing that the cost of implementation outweighed “any benefits.” He argued Lecc needed to “justify police conduct” in the “types” used by lawyer Emma Sullivan, who assisted the commission.

Sullivan had noted during the inquest’s hearings that the night of Lucena’s death was particularly busy for officers responding to numerous calls. He described the officers as hard-working, professional and doing their jobs to the best of their ability under significant pressure.

Smartt warned the commission to be careful in its language to avoid giving the public the impression that different police actions would have saved Lucena’s life.

Tuesday’s report said the police statement had been “misunderstood” and that “the absence of serious misconduct by officers in the investigation does not mean that the investigation was not justified.”

NSW police said on Tuesday it would consider the report and final recommendations.

The watchdog’s recommendations included an urgent review of radio room operations and critical incident guidelines.

Commissioner Anina Johnson said in a statement following the report’s publication: “One of the challenges of policing is that any job can mean the difference between life and death. But for police in the field, it can be unclear which job it will be. All jobs need to be done with care.”

“This investigation demonstrated the difficulty of police work and also provides an opportunity to strengthen how police respond to future incidents,” he wrote.