What the charge actually covers
Crimes Act 1900 (NSW), s 546C: any person who resists or hinders a police officer in the execution of the officer's duty, or incites another person to do so, is liable to imprisonment for 12 months, a fine of $1,100 (10 penalty units), or both.
The section creates three ways of committing one summary offence: resisting, hindering, and inciting someone else to do either.
Resisting is opposing the officer's action with some physical force — pulling away while being handcuffed, struggling while being moved, bracing against being placed in a vehicle. It does not require violence directed at the officer; that escalation is the separate and more serious charge of assault police.
Hindering is broader and vaguer, which is exactly why it needs careful handling. It means making the officer's task appreciably more difficult — getting physically between an officer and the person being arrested, blocking a doorway, hiding or disposing of something police are entitled to seize. But the line matters: asking what is happening, voicing disagreement, or filming police from a sensible distance is not hindering. Disapproval is not obstruction, and charges built on little more than attitude are regularly contested.
If the police action was unlawful, the charge can fail
Everything in s 546C hangs on five words: in the execution of duty. The offence is not "resisting police" in the abstract — it is resisting an officer who was, at that moment, doing something the law authorised. If the arrest being resisted lacked a proper basis, if the search was unlawful, if the force used was excessive, the officer may not have been acting in the execution of duty — and if that element fails, the charge fails with it.
This is the single most useful thing for anyone facing this charge to understand, because it reframes the case. The question is not only what you did; it is what the police were lawfully entitled to be doing when you did it. Every matter turns on its own facts — and where the resisted act was an arrest, the analysis on our resist arrest page takes over. For what the law actually permits police to do — searches, questioning, the rest — see bail, police powers and interviews.
One practical note, said plainly: this defence is run in the courtroom, not the street. If you believe police are acting unlawfully, the safe course is to comply, say you object, and contest it later — resistance gambles your liberty on a legal judgment made in seconds under stress.
The evidence — usually footage, usually incomplete
These charges live and die on body-worn video. The recurring problems favour neither side automatically: cameras switched on after the struggle began, so the footage shows the resistance but not what prompted it; audio that captures tone but not the words that mattered; officers whose footage is never served. The defence task is to obtain every camera's recording — and to establish what should exist but has not been produced. Where footage shows confusion, pain reaction or instinctive flinching rather than deliberate opposition, charges are contested or withdrawn.
Defences and answers to the charge
- Execution of duty — the police action resisted or hindered was not lawful;
- No resistance or hindrance — flinching, stumbling or reacting to pain is not resisting; questions and presence are not hindering;
- Identification of conduct — in a multi-person incident, whose act actually hindered;
- Self-defence — where excessive force was used, a measured response may be lawful.
How Lenz Legal approaches resist and hinder charges
These are Local Court matters, often laid alongside other charges, and frequently the easiest count on the sheet to challenge or negotiate away. The approach: get all the footage, test the lawfulness of the police action frame by frame, and make a clear-eyed call between a defended hearing and a plea with the conduct put in honest context. For a first offender whose resistance was a few seconds of instinct, an outcome without conviction is often the realistic objective. If police want to interview you about an incident, get advice before you say anything — including any explanation you think is harmless.
Resist or hinder police — your questions answered
What counts as hindering police?
Conduct that makes the officer's task appreciably harder — physically intervening, blocking, concealing things police may seize. It does not require force, but it requires more than disapproval: questions, observation and filming from a sensible distance are not hindering.
Is it an offence if what the police were doing was unlawful?
The charge requires the officer to have been in the execution of duty. If the underlying police action was unlawful, that element can fail — and the charge with it. Every matter turns on its own facts.
Does this charge go to the Local Court?
Yes — s 546C is a summary offence, dealt with in the Local Court, with a maximum of 12 months' imprisonment, a fine of $1,100 (10 penalty units), or both.
Will I get a conviction for a first offence?
Not necessarily. Outcomes span the full range, and non-conviction orders are made in appropriate cases — particularly for brief, instinctive conduct by a person of good character. Every matter turns on its own facts.