Mr Ryan seems to be advocating the NSW Police Association's position that police should be excused from giving evidence and should be able to tender a statement instead of being subject to cross-examination. This is a privilege that no other witness has.
Police also have the privilege of providing their statement to the magistrate as an aide memoire.
No other type of witness is granted this advantage. It is a matter for command and control by senior officers and the police prosecutor as to how the police are deployed when they are bussed from Cabramatta Police Station to Fairfield Court, or indeed to any court. Any efficient organisation should be able to either have the officers on standby or rostered to attend court when needed.- The Commissioner must not lose sight of the right of the accused to a fair trial. Any person whose liberty is taken away by an arrest and whose name is impeached by an accusation of crime, has a right to face his or her accuser and to cross-examine the police who have brought evidence to court against him or her. If we remove the right to test the evidence of the police we might as well abolish fair trial altogether, introduce a presumption of guilt and sentence all those accused by the police.