{"id":773400,"date":"2026-07-02T03:08:23","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T03:08:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/773400\/"},"modified":"2026-07-02T03:08:23","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T03:08:23","slug":"nsw-police-sergeant-unlawfully-accessed-internal-database-for-friend-accused-of-domestic-violence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/773400\/","title":{"rendered":"NSW Police sergeant unlawfully accessed internal database for friend accused of domestic violence"},"content":{"rendered":"

“I just snuck a look at the event.”<\/p>\n

“Reads well in your favour mate, albeit they kept it respectful towards her.”<\/p>\n

These are some of the first text messages Sergeant Shannon Daniel Cooper sent to his long-term friend, minutes after illegally accessing the police’s internal database for confidential information about the friend’s domestic violence matter.<\/p>\n

The man who was under investigation by police was a former officer and close friend of the sergeant, who is stationed at Belmont Police Station, south of Newcastle.<\/p>\n

“Thankyou mate!! \u2026 You are a good man,” the friend replied.<\/p>\n

\"NSW<\/p>\n

The two men had previously worked together in the NSW Police force. (AAP: )<\/p>\n

The night before, police from another command had attended the man’s home after being called to a suspected domestic violence incident.<\/p>\n

Officers spoke to the man’s partner who “told them certain information”, according to court documents.<\/p>\n

“Everyone will hate her for this,” Sergeant Cooper told his friend.<\/p>\n

“She is a low life c***, I f***ing hate her now after this mate,” the friend replied.<\/p>\n

NSW Police internal database accessed six times<\/p>\n

Shortly after this text exchange on the morning of September 11, 2025, the man’s partner attended a police station to report alleged domestic and family violence.<\/p>\n

The man reached out again to Sergeant Cooper.<\/p>\n

2:52pm<\/p>\n

Friend: “Answer your phone dawg!!!?<\/p>\n

3:30pm<\/p>\n

Friend: “???”<\/p>\n

Sergeant Cooper: “Stand by mate”<\/p>\n

3:50pm<\/p>\n

Friend: “Sorry mate my anxiety is through the roof”<\/p>\n

Sergeant Cooper: “I bloody imagine mate. Just had a look. It’s in its infancy unfortunately. No narrative. Just the incident with you as a suspect”<\/p>\n

Sergeant Cooper: “This is so f***ed”<\/p>\n

Friend: “Is it only one incident?”<\/p>\n

Friend: “Is the incident recent?”<\/p>\n

Sergeant Cooper: “I didn’t even look at the date. Dip shit. Stand by.”<\/p>\n

“Intimidation, a telephone offence … F*** me.”<\/p>\n

According to the agreed statement of facts, Sergeant Cooper accessed the NSW Police internal computerised operational policing system (COPS) six times over nine hours, passing on restricted information.<\/p>\n

Five days later, on September 16, a separate police officer reported the breach to senior management.<\/p>\n

Do you know more?<\/p>\n

If you have any information about a story, contact Amy Greenbank at greenbank.amy@protonmail.com<\/a> or amygreenbank.01 on Signal.<\/p>\n

It comes as a leading police integrity academic warns that officers accessing restricted information for personal use is a national problem, especially in domestic violence cases.<\/p>\n

Officer suspended with pay<\/p>\n

An investigation quietly began into Sergeant Cooper, with an audit of the COPS system completed, his roster checked and phone records pulled.<\/p>\n

His mobile phone data showed 150 text messages and 10 calls between the pair the week after the domestic violence allegations were made against the friend.<\/p>\n

\"Belmont<\/p>\n

Sergeant Cooper was based at Belmont Police Station at the time he accessed the information. (ABC News: Dan Cox)<\/p>\n

Sergeant Cooper was questioned, but “maintained his right to silence”, according to court documents.<\/p>\n

He was charged in March 2026 and pleaded guilty to the unauthorised access of restricted data on June 4.<\/p>\n

A NSW Police spokesperson said he was currently suspended with pay.<\/p>\n

He will be sentenced in August.<\/p>\n

His friend, the former police officer, has not been charged over the alleged domestic violence, but police took out an AVO.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year the NSW Police watchdog warned multiple officers were unlawfully accessing confidential information about alleged domestic violence victim-survivors.<\/p>\n

The Law Enforcement Conduct Commission (LECC) called for regular mandatory audits of COPS on officers accused of DV, which was supported ‘in principle’ by NSW Police.<\/p>\n

Illegal information access ‘prominent problem’\"Tim<\/p>\n

Tim Prenzler says there are many cases in Australia of officers illegally accessing police databases. (Supplied: UniSC)<\/p>\n

Tim Prenzler, one of Australia’s foremost police integrity experts, said there are “repeated cases” in Australia of “officers illegally accessing police databases and sharing information with friends and other persons.”<\/p>\n

Professor Prenzler, from the University of the Sunshine Coast’s School of Law said there was a “prominent problem” with information being accessed for the “purposes of stalking and harassment, including endangerment in domestic violence cases.”<\/p>\n

“Police should only be permitted to access data relevant to a case they are investigating.”<\/p>\n

“Every login must be tracked, and officers need to provide detailed rationales for enquiries and agree to conflict of interest provisions.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"“I just snuck a look at the event.” “Reads well in your favour mate, albeit they kept it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":773401,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-773400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=773400"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773400\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/773401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=773400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=773400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=773400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}