![\"Detective](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/detective-leading-senior-constable-neal-thompson-left-and-se-APG4M2FD3FHYFCU2EGCI3J7SUE.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Detective Leading Senior Constable Neal Thompson, left, and Senior Constable Vadim De Waart-Hottart. (Source: Supplied)<\/p>\n
The hearing revealed that specialist police continue to work without body-worn cameras, eight years after a state force began to roll out the technology.<\/p>\n
None of the officers who gunned down Freeman in March at a remote property in Thologolong near the Victoria-NSW border were wearing the devices.<\/p>\n
The officers were members of Victoria Police’s special operations group, who conducted covert surveillance on the fugitive’s location for days before moving in and attempting to negotiate with him over several hours.<\/p>\n
Victoria Police confirmed to AAP on Tuesday body-worn cameras currently in use were not compatible with the officers’ specialist operational equipment, although a trial was nearing completion.<\/p>\n
“Findings from this evaluation will inform any future decisions regarding broader implementation across the unit,” a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
The slain officers were executing a warrant relating to Freeman’s alleged sexual assault of a child and alleged attempt to involve a child in the production of abuse material.<\/p>\n
Seven months later, officers tracked the fugitive to a shipping container in Victoria’s remote northeast.<\/p>\n
Counsel assisting the state coroner, Lindsay Spence, on Monday said Freeman was later seen wrapped in a doona or blanket and emerged from the container with a green bag over his hands before dropping it and revealing a firearm.<\/p>\n
He shot at police and eight members returned fire, fatally wounding him, Spence told the pre-inquest hearing.<\/p>\n
Freeman was wanted over the fatal shooting of two Victorian police officers seven months ago. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n
As specialist police were not equipped with body-worn cameras, the inquest into Freeman’s death will rely on officers’ testimony and footage captured from a police helicopter.<\/p>\n
Body-worn cameras were trialled by Victoria Police in 2017 before they were rolled out to all frontline officers from mid-2018 to November 2019.<\/p>\n
Camera data analysed from March 2021 by the state’s auditor-general found officers activated their devices in 83.6% of required instances.<\/p>\n
A NSW police watchdog in 2025 recommended officers activate their body-worn cameras for any incident where they were likely to use their powers.<\/p>\n
Police in that state are advised \u2013 but not required \u2013 to record as much of an incident as possible.<\/p>\n
Premier Jacinta Allan would not say whether the situation was acceptable.<\/p>\n
“We need to let that independent (inquest) process do its work and provide further recommendations,” she told reporters.<\/p>\n
Freeman activated the voice memos function on his mobile phone, capturing 23 minutes of audio from inside the shipping container.<\/p>\n
The shooting deaths of the two officers were captured on body-worn camera footage, Spence confirmed.<\/p>\n
State Coroner Liberty Sanger will eventually hold separate inquests looking at the deaths of the two police officers and Freeman’s fatal shooting, but dates for full hearings have not been set.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two men have been arrested as part of the investigation into Dezi Freeman’s deadly shooting of two Victoria…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":445874,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[85,67,42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-445873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-australia","tag-crime-and-justice","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=445873"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445873\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/445874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=445873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=445873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=445873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}