Wallace's family welcomes new inquiry 

The family of a man shot dead by police eight years ago are welcoming a new inquiry into the shooting.

The Independent Police Conduct Authority is changing its own operating practices as a consequence of the inquiry into the Steven Wallace shooting.

Wallace was shot dead in 2000 after walking down the main street of Waitara smashing windows with a golf club and baseball bat.

Senior Constable Keith Abbott was twice acquitted of murder but the Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA) is investigating after he was criticised in the Coroner's findings, and the Wallace family brought a private murder prosecution against him.

The new IPCA has confirmed it has reopened the inquiry following the Coroner's report being released in August last year.

Authority chairperson Justice Lowell Goddard says the practice used to be to wait until police investigations, court hearings and coroner's finding were complete before conducting its own investigation.

She has expressed regret the Authority's inquiry is still not finished eight years after Wallace's death, and says that practice has now been changed. She says at the time of the shooting the Authority was not resourced to carry out its own inquiries.

But Goddard says that has changed and her inquiry will be fully independent.

The new IPCA has reviewed what happened in Waitara on the night Wallace was shot dead and visited the scene of the shooting. Its findings are due out around October.

Wallace's family is pleased at the new inquiry.

Steven's mother Raewyn says the family always wanted an independent body to investigate. She says it is not right to have the police investigating themselves, and the family has never felt satisfied with the outcome.

Raewyn Wallace says she is pleased to have had a chance to put her point of view. She claims police did not follow the right procedures on the night her son died, and the public should know that.

But the Police Association is angry at media reports implying Wallace was shot for smashing windows. President Greg O'Connor says a myth has been perpetuated from day one that Wallace was shot for breaking windows.

O'Connor says it's something that needs to be corrected and Wallace was shot for trying to injure a police officer.