Police unaware of Haider threat: inquest

Police would not have met with a radicalised teenager the night he attacked two officers if they'd known he had been recorded talking about stabbing police, an inquest has heard.

Numan Haider, 18, was shot in the car park of the Endeavour Hills Police station on September 23, 2014 after he pulled a knife on two police officers who had arranged to meet him to discuss his cancelled passport.

Haider had been recorded saying he would have stabbed police if he had had a knife five days earlier after he waved a Shahada flag at them at the Dandenong Plaza shopping centre, the coroner has been told.

The meeting would have been cancelled if police had known about the recording, two officers who can't be named told a coronial inquest.

"On that information alone we would not have proceeded with the approach to Mr Haider," Officer H said.

A witness known as Officer E said police needed Haider's co-operation and still would have tried to meet with him, but the meeting "certainly" wouldn't have been conducted in the manner it was.

The Victoria Police and Australian Federal Police officers who met with Haider were part of the Joint Counter Terrorism Team and wanted to speak with him to assess his intentions, the inquest heard.

Haider was considered low risk but police had identified him as potential threat to a political figure, Coroner John Olle heard.

On the night of the stabbing, officers were trying to develop a rapport with Haider and needed to be flexible in their approach, Officer E said.

"The general tone of the meeting on the 18th was that Mr Haider did not pose a substantial threat," Officer E said of a meeting between law enforcement officers to discuss Haider.

Officer E said there was some intelligence Haider may have sourced a knife or a Taser but that threat had been mitigated by other information that cannot be revealed.

Both officers also said they were not aware of a Facebook post by Haider in which he called police "dogs".

They only became aware of the recorded phone conversation containing the threat to police about three weeks ago, they said.

The inquest continues.