"Yes," replied the police Deputy Commissioner, her voice devoid of emotion.

Catherine Judith Burn, a lean, measured woman in her early 50s, had just agreed with the extraordinary proposition that the top three police officers in the state, including her, were caught up "in this controversy".

The controversy in question relates to what evidence there was for Burn and Commissioner Andrew Scipione to oversee a spying operation against 100 or so colleagues more than a decade ago.

One of their targets was fellow Deputy Commissioner Nick Kaldas, who remains incandescent with rage that Burn authorised for a fellow cop wearing a wire, to try repeatedly – and unsuccessfully – to get something on him.

The drama is playing itself out in the crimson-panelled walls of the Macquarie room at NSW parliament house where an upper house inquiry is trying to get to the bottom of the fiasco.

After Kaldas' impassioned evidence in the morning about the "dark cloud" that had hung over him for years, Burn's testimony was cool and unemotional during her appearance in the afternoon.

At one stage Labor MLC Adam Searle, a former barrister, could barely contain his incredulity at Burn's unruffled response to the suggestion police had got warrants to spy on 100 colleagues without presenting any evidence to the court to justify their actions.

'It's disgraceful. It's shocking," said Searle.

"It's serious," Burn deadpanned.

Infuriated, Mr Searle said not only was it shocking and disturbing, obtaining warrants with no evidence was "a gross miscarriage of justice".

While Burn remained unmoved at the allegations from another former barrister Greens MP David Shoebridge that she was passing the buck to junior officers, her barrister Bruce McClintock, SC, was making up for it by dramatically rolling his eyes at the line of questioning.

"Could you ask your barrister to stop pulling faces at the committee?" snapped Searle.

Clearly, the pretence that the state's police leadership can continue working is not going to hold. The facade won't be helped by Burn's claim to the committee that she had a "reasonable belief" that Kaldas had done something wrong all those years ago. She even offered to outline her suspicions in camera.

Not once did she apologise to Kaldas or suggest her team just might have been mistaken.

Commissioner Scipione is slated to appear on Wednesday.