Northern Beaches Police Area Command

The Northern Beaches Police Area Command (PAC) covers Manly, Dee Why, Brookvale, Narrabeen, and surrounding northern beaches suburbs. Within the area of this PAC lie North Head, Fairy Bower, and the Manly clifftops — locations that feature significantly in the documented history of anti-gay hate crimes in NSW, including several deaths attributed to perpetrators targeting men at known beats.

Historical significance — beats and clifftop deaths:

North Head and its surrounds were a known beat — a location where men went to have consensual same-sex encounters. The isolation and darkness of these clifftop locations made them particularly vulnerable to violence: perpetrators could approach undetected, and victims had limited means of escape. Several men documented in ACON’s In Pursuit of Truth and Justice (2018) were found at the base of cliffs at locations near this command’s jurisdiction, having either been pushed or fallen while trying to escape attackers. The secluded, bushland character of North Head — “some kilometres away from residential settings” (ACON 2018, p. 14) — made it ideal both as a beat and as a location for premeditated violence.

Scott Johnson case:

The most prominent case in this jurisdiction is that of Scott Johnson, whose naked body was found at the base of a cliff at Blue Fish Point, North Head, on 10 December 1988. Manly Police initially ruled his death a suicide. Three coronial inquests followed over almost 30 years, with the third (2017) finding that he fell “as a result of actual or threatened violence from unidentified persons who attacked him because they perceived him to be homosexual.” The original investigation by Manly Police — the predecessor command to the Northern Beaches PAC — was later subject to sharp criticism. The handling of the Scott Johnson case is one of the clearest documented examples of the “lacklustre” and “shameful” investigations that ACON, Report 58, and ultimately the SCOI found were characteristic of investigations involving gay victims at beat locations.

Command responsiveness:

ACON’s analysis notes that suburban commands near beats were generally less responsive to reports of anti-gay violence than inner-city commands like Surry Hills. The northern beaches commands — where beats at North Head, Fairy Bower, and coastal parks were targeted by perpetrators — appear in multiple documented cases as having conducted inadequate initial investigations, often classifying deaths as accidental or suicidal without thorough inquiry.

Police stations in this PAC (current):

Station	Address	Phone	Hours
Dee Why (PAC HQ)	1 Saint David Avenue, Dee Why 2099	02 9971 3399	24 hours
Manly	3 Belgrave Street, Manly 2095	02 9976 8099	24 hours
Frenchs Forest	137-139 Frenchs Forest Road West, Frenchs Forest 2086	02 9452 9599	24 hours
Mona Vale	1705-1707 Pittwater Road, Mona Vale 2103	02 9998 0699	24 hours

Suburbs covered: Allambie Heights, Avalon, Balgowlah, Balgowlah Heights, Bayview, Beacon Hill, Belrose, Bilgola, Brookvale, Church Point, Clontarf, Collaroy, Cottage Point, Cromer, Curl Curl, Davidson, Dee Why, Duffys Forest, Elanora Heights, Fairlight, Forestville, Frenchs Forest, Freshwater, Ingleside, Killarney Heights, Ku-Ring-Gai Chase, Manly, Manly Vale, Mona Vale, Narrabeen, Narraweena, Newport, North Balgowlah, North Curl Curl, North Manly, North Narrabeen, Oxford Falls, Palm Beach, Queenscliff, Seaforth, Terrey Hills, Warriewood, 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 and Wikipedia: New South Wales Police Force. Scott Johnson case details from SCOI (Sackar J, 2023) Vol. 2 and Report 58 (NSW Legislative Council, 2021).