Mr Fenlon had a small victory last Friday when assistant NSW Ombudsman, Steve Kinmond challenged the police service's treatment of the former Blacktown sergeant.

Mr Kinmond has recommended that Police Commissioner Ken Moroney officially recognise "Sergeant Fenlon for his service to NSW police in making this complaint".

Mr Fenlon complained in 2002 that Blacktown officers falsified figures on knife searches to make it appear the State Government had been tough on crime.

He claimed the inflated figures were created to meet political expectations of the stop-and-search laws.

He gave computer records to the Ombudsman as evidence.

His complaint said: officers created fictitious searches; claimed to have searched women on suspicion of carrying knives during shifts where no female officers were rostered; recorded searches of people on the street with whom they only spoke and then moved on; that a senior officer is advocating the methods to "drive up" the commands statistics; falsely claimed to have searched people who were in custody on suspicion of unrelated offences.

The Ombudsman's office found that four Blacktown police officers were discovered to have conducted more than 1000 searches in one year, accounting for about five per cent of the entire state total.

As a result, Police Commissioner Ken Moroney has been asked to advise Bureau of Crime Statistics chief Don Weatherburn of the risks of relying on knife search data for future research.

Mr Fenlon said he will be considering legal action against the service.

"I've got to find a barrister who will represent me, not many of them like going up against the police force," he said.