Inner West Police Area Command

The Inner West Police Area Command (PAC) covers Newtown, Glebe, Leichhardt, Marrickville, Annandale, and the surrounding inner western suburbs. The area includes Redfern, historically policed by a separate Redfern Police Area Command that has since been reorganised into the broader Inner West PAC structure.

Note on historical PAC structure:

NSW Police PAC boundaries have been reorganised multiple times. “Redfern Police Area Command” — referenced specifically in Gay and Transgender hate crimes between 1970 and 2010 (Report 58, 2021) in relation to the Simon Knight case — was a separate command at the time of the events described. It is recorded here as a former name/jurisdiction that is now encompassed within the Inner West PAC. Case records referencing “Redfern PAC” should be understood as referring to the predecessor jurisdiction.

Simon Knight case:

Simon Knight, a gay man from the Newtown area, went missing in July 2005. His case was initially reported to and investigated by Redfern Police Area Command. According to testimony given by his parents, Robert Knight and Robyn Conlan, to the NSW Parliamentary Committee (Report 58, 2021): when they first reported Simon missing, a police officer responded “gays go missing all the time … he’ll turn up.” An Unsolved Homicide Team initially refused to investigate because the case had not been referred by the Coroner. Over the following fourteen years, Robert and Robyn experienced repeated failures of communication, delays, and refusals to share documentation — including a 2019 review report they were given fifteen minutes to read but not allowed to copy. In 2020, the police reward was increased to $250,000 (from $100,000 in 2008). A coronial inquest was conducted. As of 2021, the case remained unresolved.

The Inner West — including Newtown, Glebe, and the inner-western suburbs — was also one of the areas where gay and lesbian communities lived and socialised in significant numbers throughout the 1970s–1990s, with Newtown in particular emerging as a significant lesbian community hub. ACON’s research notes that violence against gay and transgender people occurred across the full range of Sydney’s gay social geography, not only in the Oxford Street precinct.

Police stations in this PAC (current):

Station	Address	Phone	Hours
Marrickville (PAC HQ)	89-101 Despointes Street, Marrickville 2204	02 9568 9299	24 hours
Newtown	222 Australia Street, Newtown 2042	02 9550 8199	24 hours

Suburbs covered: Camperdown, Darlington, Dulwich Hill, Enmore, Erskineville, Lewisham, Marrickville, Newtown, and surrounding areas.

Address and station data sourced from NSW Police Force website (accessed 18 July 2026). Jurisdictional information also from NSW Police Force operational structure documentation, Wikipedia: New South Wales Police Force, and Report 58 (NSW Legislative Council, 2021).