2024 Audio Long (Over 20 Minutes)

Brad Balzan, 20, was chased by four plain-clothes police officers into his own backyard in Western Sydney, where he was shot twice and died. Paul Farrell and the Background Briefing Team entered three episodes of a four-part Background Briefing podcast investigating and challenging the official narrative of what led to the young man’s death.

They gained the trust of Balzan’s family: his mother, Belinda, never spoke to police but gave an interview for the program. They scrutinised the inquest and police testimony, and explored the bigger picture of NSW Police’s “proactive policing” system.

Using data obtained through freedom of information laws, Farrell and the team revealed how proactive policing created a culture where police were encouraged to search as many people as possible, and searched people in migrant, low socio-economic communities and Indigenous areas far more frequently. They secured two interviews with former police officers who were critical of the system, including its founder in NSW. In exploring what went wrong in Brad Balzan’s case, the podcast raises important questions about what it means for the broader approach to policing in the state.