The police watchdog will look into whether senior members of the NSW Police Force engaged in serious misconduct when promoting or recruiting other officers.

The Law Enforcement Conduct Commission will also look at whether police gave confidential information to others without proper authority, or engaged in undeclared or unapproved secondary employment.

The public examination, named Operation Merkur, was announced on Wednesday morning. It will begin on August 4 and run for four weeks, presided over by former Supreme Court judge and chief commissioner Peter Johnson. The terms of reference are yet to be released.

A review into the police culture released last month described the promotions process as “opaque” and “inconsistent”. It found some staff felt discouraged from speaking up about bullying due to a fear of retaliation, including being denied promotions.

**More to come. **