The NSW police minister has faced a grilling over whether she was behind a leaked story against one of the top contenders for the role of police commissioner.

Deputy Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon — who is among a group of senior officers vying to become the next police commissioner — said he should have thought "more carefully" about the appropriateness of taking his wife and two friends onboard a police boat on Sydney Harbour on New Year's Eve in 2023.

Deputy Commissioner Lanyon told the ABC he was onboard the police vessel Nemesis but confirmed no alcohol was taken onto or consumed on the vessel that evening.

"As deputy commissioner for metropolitan field operations, I had overall oversight of the New Year's Eve operation in the metropolitan area both on land and water," he said in a

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