Police investigate senior NSW officer over improper breath test

New South Wales police have launched an internal investigation after a senior officer admitted he neglected his duty while breath testing a driver.

The officer was patrolling regional roads in Narrandera, in the state’s south-west, when he pulled over a vehicle at about 10.30pm on a Friday in August.

He failed to carry out a proper breath test on the male driver, who was reportedly the son of a more senior officer, News Corp Australia reported.

The senior constable self-reported the incident at his next shift, police said.

He was initially charged with two offences in February. He later pleaded guilty to neglecting his duty. The second charge was dropped.

He is due to be sentenced in Griffith local court on Friday.

The NSW police commissioner, Karen Webb, told reporters on Thursday she was “disappointed” by the incident, and had directed deputy commissioner Paul Pisanos to conduct an investigation into the matter.

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Pisanos admitted such incidents eroded community confidence.

The charges followed a separate incident in which a high-ranking officer was accused of crashing a work car in a tunnel while driving drunk in May 2023.

No public statement was issued on that incident, which Webb put down to it being something that “slipped through the cracks”.

Meanwhile, two NSW police officers have been charged with the assault of an elderly man after an incident in south-west Sydney earlier this year.