She put in a “Hurt on Duty” form (HOD), which is used to report physical and psychological issues through the NSW Police Force’s injury management system.

In reality, to report psychological injury was “career suicide”, Rebecca, a former Newcastle and Lake Macquarie officer, said.

“You are then targeted. You are managed out,” she said.

Rebecca is one of several former Hunter Region officers who have spoken out about a toxic culture of bullying and intimidation within NSW Police ranks, where, they say, unwell officers are targeted until they quit, breakdown or commit suicide.

“They’ve pushed as hard as they can for me to put myself in the grave,” Rebecca said.

She was medically discharged from the police force in 2010 after 17 years and is still battling for a settlement to her workers’ compensation claim. Police insurers dispute her post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which she says has been diagnosed by five psychiatrists and four psychologists.

She joined the force at the age of 20.

“My stuff started fairly early, when I was a student, a bloke blew his face off in front of me,” she said.

“It sounded like a car backfiring but it just wasn’t right. So we drove back to check it out. He was 20 metres from my side of the car, put (the gun) under his jaw and shot his head off.

“I was offered no counselling, no debriefing, nothing. Zero. Ever.”

Rebecca has grappled with thoughts of ending her life many times. During her time in the force she lost friends, also fellow officers, to suicide.

Two of them were working with her at Toronto police station at the time of their deaths, which occurred after Rebecca started speaking out about a lack of support for officers in distress.

Rebecca said she moved to Toronto police station after “sustained bullying” by a superior in the Newcastle Local Area Command.

“I joined the Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) committee because out of my experience of how they treat injured officers, something had to be done.

“I remember asking (at a meeting) ‘how come you haven’t mentioned psych injury, it’s one of your biggest problems?’.”

Then a colleague took his own life. 

“The first OHS meeting back you go through the general issues ... and everyone had raised the usual stuff, cracks in concrete, and then it got to my turn and I said ‘I’m just curious how many people have died from psychological injury and how many people have died from a crack in the concrete?’.”

Weeks later, another colleague working at Toronto took his life.

“They arranged for a psychologist to be present at the police station for four Fridays,” Rebecca said.

She struggled to recover following the deaths, and said she felt pressure to “just get over it”.

Eventually, she put in her HOD form.

“Because obviously speaking to them and telling them that I had a problem, I wasn’t getting any support,” she said.

“So career suicide, but I put it in.”

Rebecca said people learned not to speak up about stress or bullying after seeing how others were treated.

“You make a complaint against someone, it’s turned on you,” she said.

Ray*, an officer of 10 years who left the force with PTSD in 2009, agreed.

“The minute you do say something, you’re targeted,” he said.

He said officers who spoke out against management would be reprimanded in a number of ways including being intimidated at unnecessary meetings, additional hurdles when accessing leave, having their current and past work heavily scrutinised and reviewed and being tasked with menial duties.

For Rachel* suffering a physical injury after a relatively short time in the force lead to her being bullied by fellow officers, which left her a wreck. Eventually she had a breakdown.

“I was bullied after I was physically injured, I was bullied really badly,” she said.

“People hated me for being injured.”

She said some fellow officers made it difficult for her to do her job.

“They shredded the stuff out of my pigeon hole, which was court documents,” she said.

“(A colleague) said ‘it’s been filed’, and I said ‘oh cool, where is it?” and he said ‘filed means shredded’.

“So I didn’t have the reports I needed. They made my life really difficult … I couldn’t do my job.

“My psychologist told me ‘if you hadn’t been bullied you could have handled the PTSD’.

“But the bullying, they destroyed me.

“When I came out of the academy I was invincible and I was fit and I was amazing and I loved my job. I don’t know how they wore me down, but they did.”

Rachel said when the bullying at her station intensified, she was contacted by a superior with what seemed like a lifeline.

“(The superior) rang me and said ‘you’re being harassed would you like to come to Boolaroo for a while’,” she said. 

“I was sitting in a dark room, by myself 10 hours a day doing victim follow up, where I was meant to dob on my fellow cops. 

“I had to go through every event, I had to … ring all these people for 10 hours and ask them ‘how did the cops do, are you happy?’.

“I was being bullied and he sends me to go and do that, so they hate me even more.”

NSW Police declined to comment when asked if there was a culture of bullying within the force, but said complaints were acted on.

“Any complaints of bullying and harassment are investigated and, if found to be sustained, will result in the consideration of serious management action,” a NSW Police spokesperson said. 

The spokesperson said all claims of injury were reported through the injury management system and were classified as HOD “dependent upon an investigation of the factual circumstances” surrounding the injury.

Police had a “range of options” to support officers following traumatic events including “operational debriefing, the Employee Assistance Program, Peer Support Officer program, Police Chaplaincy, and the wellcheck program”.

“NSWPF has recently launched the Incident and Support Database to assist in identifying officers exposure to incidents which may adversely impact their well-being,” the spokesperson said.

Rebecca slammed the policies, saying they were no good if not enacted.

“They have an abundance of policies and information on psychological injury yet failed to use any of them in my case,” she said.

“Instead of offering support, the police are antagonistic towards injured workers. Instead of of recognising or supporting an injured officer, too often the officer is subjected to performance programs, disciplinary action or unsuitable duties.”

The NSW Police spokesperson said the force was working to help officers struggling with trauma.

“NSWPF is continuing to develop cultural change with a focus on understanding that it is normal for the incidents that police attend to impact them,” the spokesperson said.

“Commanders who have concerns about the psychological well-being of an officer can proactively refer the officer to an experienced occupational physician and psychologists”.

The officers who have spoken to the Herald dispute that this occurs. They have told of a difficulties in recognising problems and a culture that discourages seeking help.

“Generally what happens is you don’t know you’ve got a problem, you’ve got no idea, so you just keep rolling along,” Rebecca said.

“And you’ve got no idea that you’re falling apart until you hit the wall.”

Rebecca said she does not recall being offered debriefs after critical incidents.

“I’ve been to murders, almost shot people, people trying to stab me, fatal accidents, people dying on you every critical incident that you could imagine, I’ve been to, done it,” she said.

“Not once ever had I been offered anything.

“They’re meant to. It doesn’t happen.”

The NSW Police Force spokesperson said managers received “substantial training” through an applied leadership program.

“In addition an education program entitled Your Health First commenced delivery in late 2015 to all ranks dealing with resilience and suicide prevention.

“A particular focus of the training is identifying the signs that either the individual or a fellow officer may be at risk and strategies to engage when concerns are raised.

“NSWPF has delivered substantial education in relation to emotional wellbeing including presentations by doctor Kevin Gilmartin, author of Emotional Survival for Law Enforcement and various literature including our Five Things booklet.”

*Names were changed. lallan@theherald.com.au 

For crisis support: Lifeline 13 11 14