NSW cop sacked over topless waitress party, domestic violence case failures

But after another officer investigated the woman’s complaint, her ex-partner was charged with breaching a domestic violence order and stalking/intimidation.

Toward the end of 2022, Herring hosted a “Yellow Team Christmas Party” at an apartment, which he described as “a fairly loose affair”.

The Industrial Relations Commission heard another police officer had arranged and paid for a topless waitress to attend.

Herring said he only realised she was a topless waitress when she took her top off in front of the 20 to 30 guests.

“I don’t understand why it is my sole responsibility to be the one to remove her,” Herring said in a later interview.

“There were people who left the unit due to the scenario but as I said earlier there were more than a dozen who remained behind who clearly had no issues with her presence.”

The police commissioner’s lawyers argued that allowing the waitress to remain at the party amounted to sexual harassment.

They alleged Herring had given “dishonest, or at the least disingenuous” accounts of the party and his responses to the domestic violence cases.

Herring argued he was a committed officer and a person of integrity who had not maliciously or intentionally failed to investigate the domestic violence complaints. But as a male officer without specialist training, he said he was “not particularly well suited to DV investigations”.

Industrial Relations Commission deputy president Jane Paingakulam found Herring had failed to show his dismissal was “unreasonable or unjust”.