There are calls for a police watchdog to have its powers bolstered after allegations of gratuitous violence and cover-ups.
Scandal-plagued NSW Police is again under fire after an episode of ABC's Four Corners on Monday night aired graphic videos of officers beating people under arrest, including a woman suffering a mental health episode.
NSW Greens MP Sue Higginson said the plethora of evidence did not surprise her, and did not scratch the surface of "a toxic and brutal culture that exists in the police force".
"This is a culture of excessive force, unbridled power and cover up, enabling police to be violent with impunity," she said.
"The default system is for the police to investigate themselves and it's not working."
Ms Higginson called for the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission - the state's watchdog - to have increased powers, and more investigators to probe complaints.
In one video aired on Four Corners, two officers are seen bashing a schizophrenic woman, pepper spraying her in the eyes and genitals, kicking her, stomping on her and dragging her by the hair.
Another involved Canberra NRL talent Tom Starling, who was restrained while two officers punched him to the point he appeared to be unconscious - yet police still charged him with assaulting four officers.
Those charges were dropped after a lengthy legal process. Two officers involved were subsequently charged with assaulting Starling and will go to trial later in 2026.
Australia's peak psychiatrist body zeroed in on police treatment of Jodi Knott, the 48-year-old living with schizophrenia who was viciously assaulted while having a psychotic episode.
Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists NSW chair Ian Korbel renewed concerns about police as frontline responders to mental health episodes.
"People living with serious mental illness are far more likely to be victims of violence than perpetrators ... responses that are punitive, aggressive or poorly informed can cause further harm and deepen trauma," he said.
The National Mental Health Consumer Alliance (NMHCA) said Ms Knott's assault - for which two officers have been jailed - was "the sharpest visible point of an undocumented, daily reality for consumers".
In the five years to July 2023, 52 people experiencing mental health crises were killed by NSW Police.
"Australia has a profound, systemic shortage of community-based, peer-led psychosocial supports," NMHCA chair Mathew Fagan said.
A recent notorious case involving NSW Police officers mishandling mental health cases involved the fatal tasering of 95-year-old grandmother Clare Nowland.
Then-senior constable Kristian White fired his weapon after being called to Yallambee Lodge nursing home in Cooma.
Mrs Nowland, who had symptoms of dementia, was holding two steak knives and refused to give them up.
NSW Police has also been accused of using excessive force to control protesters, notably when thousands packed Sydney's CBD objecting to the Australian visit of Israeli president Isaac Herzog.
