An injured police officer is carried away Photo: VNP / Phil Smith
Police officers have described fearing for their lives and being sent to evict protesters on the last day of the Parliament protest without proper protective gear or equipment.
That comes from interviews done by the Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA) for their report into police actions during the three week occupation.
The IPCA found on the whole, police served the public well in the face of at times "extreme provocation".
But it said police did not equip officers properly - there was not enough body armour to go around, and what stocks there were, were stashed in the Parliament basement and difficult to access.
Police said they have now bought more protective gear, and are reviewing processes for policing large crowds.
Officers told the IPCA provisions for equipping staff were "absolutely shambolic", and almost all that spoke to the authority said they lacked the necessary equipment.
"We're lucky someone didn't get killed," one said. "Staff were not adequately equipped to respond to the threat posed by protesters. This was foreseeable and avoidable."
The report details how a team (including new graduates) that was tasked with drawing protesters' attention away from the main clearance operation were only given protective goggles and gloves described by officers as "gardening gloves".
"There were not enough for everybody. Many did not have any protective equipment, and police did not have plans in place to provide it to them."
A third of officers interviewed said they had to share or borrow equipment, including pepper spray, helmets and shields.
One said that during the briefing for the operation they were told they did not have helmets, pepper spray or Tasers for them.
The officer said there was laughter from staff when they were then told that their safety was "a priority".
No specific health and safety plan, health and safety and staff excluded from decision-making
The IPCA said the police's plan for the final day was "incomplete and inadequate" and did not properly address how the risks to officers would be minimised.
It said while it was reasonable not to provide body armour from the outset - possibly being perceived by protesters as an escalation - a trigger point for when it could be used was not clearly communicated, leading to it being deployed in an "ad hoc" way.
'Peace' scrawled in coloured chalk on the Parliamentary forecourt Photo: VNP / Phil Smith
As the afternoon progressed and the violence ramped up, staff were not always able to sub out to get what armour was available, meaning they were exposed to dangers projectiles being thrown by protesters.
Eighty-two officers were treated for injuries, six sent to the emergency room.
The IPCA said police did not have a specific health and safety plan, and staff assigned to deal with health and safety issues were excluded from operational decision-making.
Allister Rose is a former police officer turned health and safety advocate at Blue Hope Foundation, a health and safety charity for police officers.
He said the report showed police ignored their own policy, and health and safety staff.
"It's very clear the police [had] a light touch with their health and safety - they [ignored] the advice of their own health and safety advisors.
"It's not good enough."
Rose said police had had weeks to source protective equipment from Australia or the United States.
Police have now bought more gear
Commissioner of Police Andrew Coster said 150 additional sets of hard armour have since been bought.
He said supplies across the country have also been reviewed and more body armour may be purchased later.
On the Lambton/Bowen corner, next to the Cenotaph, police were pelted by paving stones. Photo: VNP / Phil Smith
"The report highlights areas for improvement, including public order policing (POP), planning, command and control, equipment, and health and safety," Coster said.
"We have completed a significant amount of work already, such as ordering more equipment, providing staff with more training, and beginning a full review of public order policing."
He agreed that ideally, more officers would have been fully equipped with specialist protective equipment, but at the time of the operation it had exhausted all options to do so, including utilising partner agencies.
Coster said extensive effort had gone into staff safety.