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The police watchdog will investigate the actions of officers and the NSW Police broadly at Monday’s protest against the visit of Israeli President Isaac Herzog.
The Law Enforcement Conduct Commission (LECC) received a significant number of complaints about police behaviour, after videos emerged of officers aggressively arresting and moving on protesters at Town Hall.
“Following the receipt of a significant number of complaints, the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission (the Commission) has decided that it is in the public interest to investigate the police operation at Sydney Town Hall and surrounds on the evening of Monday 9 February 2026, including incidents of alleged misconduct on the part of NSW police officers against persons attending that location for a protest,” a spokesperson said.
The LECC will investigate the lawfulness and appropriateness of the NSW Police Force and individual officers’ behaviour, and will analyse mobile phone footage, documents and other records held by the police.
The commission will also hold hearings, and a public report will be tabled in NSW parliament when the investigation concludes.
NSW Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon and Premier Chris Minns have broadly and repeatedly defended the actions of police officers at the protest, where 27 people were arrested and 10 charged.
Police have since confirmed to the Herald that a senior police officer had promised to allow a group of Muslim worshippers to continue with their sunset prayers, only for other officers to forcibly remove them. In phone footage of the incident, a man is seen being pulled to his feet while bowed in prayer and thrown to the ground.
When asked on Thursday if he would apologise to the Muslim community for the actions of police while breaking up the prayer, Minns said he would not.
“I don’t do that in an antagonistic way, but I think the circumstances are important, and I genuinely believe that NSW Police … would never, ever have disrupted a prayer service, or individual Australians who were exercising their religion, unless it was in the middle of a riot,” he said.
Lanyon told ABC Radio Sydney he had contacted members of the Muslim community, but defended the actions of police.
“I have apologised for … offence taken for interfering with that religious process. But it needs to be taken in context that we were moving a violent and aggressive crowd backwards,” he said.
The premier has faced mounting calls for an independent inquiry into the actions of police at the protest, including from his own MPs, from independent Wentworth MP Allegra Spender, Lord Mayor Clover Moore and from Muslim community leaders.
Jessica McSweeney is a reporter at The Sydney Morning Herald covering urban affairs and state politics.Connect via email.From our partners
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