The “comms team” over at the New Zealand police has penned a typical “Dirty Politics” response to a recent New Zealand Herald article by Bryce Edwards. Complete with gratuitous ad homs, dodgy facts, and an emotional quote from a [I suspect] non-existent police officer to back-up Commissioner Mike Bush’s plaintive whine, the response falls back on statistics showing that public trust in the police – although falling – still remains high.
Edwards’ article takes the police to task for recent failings and mentions a few hoary chestnuts going back decades. There’s nothing particularly wrong with Edwards’ article except that it ignores how National Ltd™ Police Ministers have sat by and done nothing in response to the on-going police failings. Edwards prefers to lay blame with the police themselves. However, first with Judith Collins, then Anne Tolley, and now Michael Woodhouse, overall responsibility for the functioning of the police has been dodged. The culture of FAIL which has now infested the police from the top down has been, National Ltd™ would have us believe, is just a series of “operational issues” about which it can do nothing.
Well, to start this series off, lets take a wee look at a partial list of the various “operational issues” which have plagued the police since John Key finagled power back in 2008 . . .
05/12/08 – Wellington police officer Jason Manu Casson is discharged without conviction for stealing $90.
11/12/08 – Another police chase, another crash.
16/12/08 – Palmerston North police officer Timothy Hesketh, 27, who lied during investigations and showed no remorse was found guilty of breaking a prisoner’s neck yet escapes a jail sentence.
09/02/09 – A police recruit escapes assault charges and is permitted to graduate with any sanction or note on his personal file. He first posting was South Auckland.
11/02/09 – Lower Hutt police leave confidential documents behind after executing a search warrant putting witnesses at risk of gang violence and then fail to own up at a subsequent IPCA enquiry. The inquiry noted: “The conflicting accounts given by the two officers, and the facts that no officer has taken responsibility for the loss of the Operation Order and that the Police investigator has not been able to identify that officer, are undesirable. Whilst there is no evidence of criminal conduct in relation to the loss of the order, its loss does amount to misconduct.” The Mongrel Mob say they know who left the report behind but were never interviewed.
17/03/09 – The IPCA criticises police for their continuing failure to develop procedures for the prompt drug and alcohol testing of officers involved in serious incidents.
27/03/09 – A Christchurch officer broke a number of police protocols in the lead up to the fatal shooting of Stephen Bellingham. The IPCA finds that the unnamed officer: did not tell his communications controller he was going to the scene, nor did he advise them he was armed, failed to brief two other officers who were on their way to the scene so that he could tackle Bellingham with support, and, crucially, a dog patrol unit, which would have been a huge asset to the effort to contain Bellingham, was diverted to another crime.
30/03/09 – Nelson police officer Anthony Dale Bridgman is convicted of two counts of dangerous driving after he pulled out in front of two motorcyclists, seriously injuring both.
24/03/09 – Another police chase, another crash.
19/05/09 – Head of the Police Prosecution Service Superintendent Graham Thomas steps down after it is revealed that he refused to undergo a breath test.
29/05/09 IPCA states that Auckland Police officer Constable Aaron Holmes was breaking the law and ignoring official policy when he seriously injured innocent teenage Farhat Buksh.
20/06/09 – An unnamed police officer is reprimanded for writing out the employment details of a driver on a speeding ticket as “kitchen bitch”.
25/07/09 – Northland police run down two pedestrians, killing one and injuring another.
15/08/09 – An Auckland constable is suspended after it was alledged that he leaked sensitive information to help a known criminal to avoid arrest. The unnamed officer was in a squad which targets “volume crime”, in particular burglaries, and had access to the police intelligence database.
05/08/09 – Hamilton police tell a disabled man they are too busy to investigate the alleged theft of $1600.
07/09/09 – Senior Instructor at the Porirua Police College, Detective Sergeant John Gualter, is convicted for drunk driving after being found to have an alcohol reading at more than twice the legal limit.
09/09/09 – A Wellington man has his neck broken by a police baton while a party is being shut down.
19/09/09 – Auckland police officer Constable Matt Hooper is charged with perverting the course of justice after attempting to make use of a legal loop hole to avoid drunk driving charges.
26/09/09 – National Head of Police Professional Standards, Superintendent Jon Moss resigns after news of an affair he had with a junior colleague comes to light. Moss helped introduce the new “professional distance policy” last year which covers sexual conduct for officers with the public, victims of crime and work colleagues.
28/09/09 – Masterton detective Sue Mackle goes public on the fact that police are failing to investigate hundreds of sexual abuse complaints in favour of focussing on property crimes because doing so makes the statistics look better.
04/10/09 Revelations that a senior police was a paedophile and interfered with investigations into the activities of Bert Potter and the Centrepoint commune come to light.
09/10/09 – Dunedin police fail to follow procedure and a prisoner is found dead in the cells when they finally get around to checking.
09/10/09 – Nelson police officer Senior Constable Garry Dunn is sent to trial for assault after a two day depositions hearing was told he rammed a cyclist with his car and then pepper sprayed the man for not wearing a safety helmet.
04/11/09 – Whakatane police prosecutor Adrian Hilterman was sentenced in Tauranga District Court today to 150 hours community work for assaulting his wife. He was convicted and discharged on three charges of assaulting his children. In the same court last month, he was found guilty of assaulting Deborah Hilterman, 37-years-old, by kicking her around the groin area between June 1 and June 29 last year at Whakatane. He was also found guilty of assaulting her in a car travelling from Auckland to Whakatane on June 30, 2007. He was discharged on 10 other charges of assaulting his wife, a Whakatane general practitioner.
09/11/09 – Figures released under the Official Information Act show that half of all police officers charged with drunk driving are convicted.
16/11/09 – Auckland police officers Patrick Garty, 32, and Wiremu Bowers-Rakatau, 21, charged with assault.
21/11/09 – 51 police officers were disciplined in the year to date for a variety of things including turning up to work drunk, unlawfully using their police ID, assault, speeding, using excessive force, and inappropriate behaviour on duty.
08/12/09 – Former constables Reuben James Harris and Benson Lyle Murphy are accused of making false statements in regard to the prosecution of a third officer who was charged with manslaughter. Harris and Murphy had earlier pleaded guilty to conspiring to defeat the course of justice. Their jail sentence was subsequenrly quashed by a judge who refused to explain why.
17/12/09 – Christchurch police officer Nathan Thorose Connolly is sent to jail for inducing sexual connection from the sex worker by means of a threat.
19/12/09 – Another police chase, another crash.
23/12/09 – The IPCA announces a nation wide investigation into how police are dealing with child abuse complaints, following on from revalations made public in November.
05/01/10 – Police are filmed carrying out illegal road stops and searches.
12/01/10 – Taranaki police are criticised by the IPCA for not preventing a drunk driver going on to kill three people when Hawera officers could have taken steps to immobilise the driver’s vehicle when they found it parked up outside a pub after a chase.
19/01/10 – Two unnamed police officers fail in their duties resulting in the otherwise avoidable death of a Hamilton woman.
22/01/10 – Rotorua District Court convicts an ex police officer for possession of child porn.
23/01/10 – Two Papakura detectives charged with indecent exposure and offensive behaviour after a drunken escapade.
31/01/10 Unnamed police officers are filmed putting the public at risk with a crazy display of dangerous driving at a school fair
14/02/10 – Auckland High Court takes two minutes to throw out a murder charge brought by police who had used huge amounts of resources and dodgy investigation techniques to manufacture the arrest and 16-month incarcertation of an innocent man.
16/02/10 – Christchurch police are slammed in a report for failing to adhere to policy during a chase which left an innocent bystander in hospital with horrific head injuries.
20/02/10 – Another police chase, another crash.
21/02/10 – Another police chase, another crash.
26/02/10 – Innocent Auckland man, 62 year old Brett Abraham is admitted to hospital for weeks of treatment after being savaged by a police dog. The police dog handler left Mr Abraham alone, bleeding and crawling up the driveway to his home.
28/02/10 – Christchurch police, despite a complaint of theft, failed to arrest a man who, the next day, committed murder. Police said at the time they were too busy to handle the theft complaint. Area police commander, Dave Cliff, refused to discuss the matter.
01/03/10 – Union’s criticise a double-jeopardy situation produced by police circumventing privacy legislation in grubby deals with employers to ensure drink drivers are dealt to at work as well as in Court.
01/03/10 – 1300 Police officers fail their fitness test.
01/03/10 – Auckland police go to great lengths to keep the identity of the officer who shot to death innocent man Halatau Naitoko secret. His lawyers had earlier sought to deny justice by seeking to have the shooter exluded from attending the hearing at all.
13/01/10 – Another police chase, another crash.
02/02/10 – Another police chase, another crash.
03/03/10 – Dunedin police reveal that they failed to follow up a possible sighting of missing British girl Madeline McCann after a local security guard’s approach to police was disregarded.
04/03/10 – A man helping police is bitten by a police dog.
05/03/10 – Invercargill District Court throws out an assault charge brought against a bus driver by local police after the driver was arrested for allegedly “assaulting” a child by stopping the child from assaulting another child on the bus.
07/03/10 – Detective Sergeant Lloyd Schmid is investigated for encouraging a junoir staff member to have sex with an informant in order to gain additional information.
14/03/10 – An unnamed senior police officer is accused of abusing his powers after a friend of his is held up at a check point when on the way to a sports match.
18/03/10 – Police management refuse to name two officers being investigated for fraud.
19/03/10 – Another police chase, another crash.
27/03/10 – Another police chase, another crash.
27/03/10 – Another police chase, another crash. Two in one day.
31/03/10 – Senior police deny systemic faults played a part in the fact that Senior Constable Len Snee broken a number of rules in the lead up to him being shot by Napier gunman Jan Molenaar.
1/04/10 – A police officer who works in a serious crash unit is under investigation for alleged drink-driving after he was reported for backing into a parked car.
1/04/10 – Karl Walter Vincent, a North Otago police officer loses name supression in a case involving accusations of indecent assault.
4/04/10 – Independent Police Complaints Authority Investigator Larry Reid describes a man who had his neck broken while in police custody as a “complete arsehole”.
04/04/10 – Another police chase, another crash.
18/04/10 – Another police chase, another crash.
24/04/10 – Queenstown Police Sergeant Ian Collin, who prosecutes in the Queenstown and Alexandra district courts, was issued with an infringement notice and an instant 28-day suspension after being caught driving a police car at 149 kph.
30/04/10 – Significant faults in the “Kahui Twins” police invesitgation are identified and which hampered both the defence and the prosecution teams.
04/05/10 – Another police chase, another crash.
08/05/10 A three-year-old boy was mauled by a police dog at a kindergarten visit that was meant to teach the children about dog safety.
14/05/10 – Police are found to have failed in their duty to protect after delaying the arrival of emergency medical staff to the scene of Navtej Singh’s fatal shooting.
18/05/10 – A senior Wellington police officer receives name supression when appearing in court on assualt charges.
21/05/10 A senior under cover police officer admits interfering with and removing objects from a murder scene. No disciplinary action follows.
21/05/10 – An man helping police is bitten by a police dog.
30/05/10 – A police officer’s vile on-line diary is investigated in the hope of identifying the officer concerned. All posts from the gpforums are deleted shortly thereafter.
31/05/10 – An official information request shows that five police officers have been charged with drink driving over the previous 12 months, including a senior constable in the serious crash unit.
05/06/10 – Constables Brenton David Rooney and Duncan Roy Hollebon are found guilty of assault after kicking a suspect already in custody.
12/06/10 – Sergeant Jason Lamont gets to keep his job after being let off a drunk drive charge where he had been found to be one and a half times over the limit.
20/06/10 – Another police chase, another crash.
23/06/10 Police are accused of improperly obtaining DNA samples from Maori.
25/06/10 – Constables Patrick Garty and Wiremu Bowers Rakatau are convicted of assault.
02/07/10 – Ex-Superintendent Jon Moss, the former head of “professional standards” faces new accusations of criminal behaviour.
04/07/10 – Senior police deny a culture of violence exists in the force following the standing down of a fourth officer from one Auckland district for assault allegations.
07/07/10 – Harsher laws for offences against police introduced but no requirement for harsher sentencing for police officers committing offences considered.
10/07/10 – Police apologise after telling a woman she would have to wait two days for a follow-up to the burgalry of her house.
10/07/10 – Two unnamed police officers to face charges for driving offences after crashing their police vehicles.
10/07/10 – Another police chase, another crash.
29/07/10 – Armed police unnecessarily smash windows and fire ten tear gas cannisters into a house while searching for a suspect.
29/07/10 – Gisborne police supress information in an effort to make the community feel safer.
03/08/10 – a Mongrel Mob member and two associates walk free after a judge rules police acted unlawfully.
06/08/10 – Police officers Keith Parsons, Erle Busby, John Mills, and Bruce Laing escape criminal conviction but are found to have used excessive force against a prisoner being held in Whakatane cells. The victim of the police violence subsequently received compensation.
06/08/10 – Disbelief as the man responsible for tormenting Algerian refugee Ahmed Zaoui , former SIS director Richard Woods, is appointed to the Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA) for to years.
08/08/10 – Seedy details of a police officer’s secret life start to come to light after he is stabbed to death.
20/08/10 – <http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz-police/news/article.cfm?o_id=131&objectid=10667461> And unnamed police officer is stood down after being charged with multiple accounts of indecent assualt.
24/08/10 – Another police chase, another crash.
25/08/10 – Police get special treatment in liquor licensing law changes.
25/08/10 – Detective Inspector Dave Archibald who had been caught illegally accessing the police computer system to help the defence of convicted pack rapist Brad Shipton gets a promotion.
26/08/10 – Another police chase, another crash.
04/09/10 – <http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz-police/news/article.cfm?o_id=131&objectid=10671040> Coroner David Crerar finds that having an extra officer involved in a search of Jan Molenaar’s Napier home would have prevented the death of police officer Len Snee.
17/09/10 – Another police chase, another crash.
19/09/10 – Armed police terrorise a couple for hours after raiding a house looking for a suspect who had moved out months ago, a simple fact police could easily have verified. An apology is given and $2000 spent on repairing damage caused by police in the raid.
22/09/10 – Auckland police sergeant Martin James Folan is name as the officer charged with assaulting five prisoners over a three month period.
01/09/10 – Police accused by lawyer of silencing dissent by arresting those who’s political views they disagreed with.
23/09/10 – Oamaru police constable Karl Walter Vincent is found guilty of multiple counts of indecent assault.
25/09/10 – Increasing concern expressed at rising number of fatalities due to police pursuit tactics.
25/09/10 – Police pursuits for traffic offences result in 11 deaths in the nine months to September 2010.
28/09/10 – Former Otago police officer Neil Ford is jailed for perjury.
28/09/10 – Superintendent Bob Burns says that other officers were involved in covering up perjury and the wilfully attempting to pervert the course of justice which is why it took five years to bring charges against only two officers.
08/10/10 – Another police chase, another crash.
10/10/10 – Evidence given by two police officers is thrown out and the officers concerned are under investigation for failing to disclose information to a defence lawyer which would almost certainly have led to a not guilty finding.
11/11/10 – Another police chase, another crash.
16/10/10 Veteran barrister Barry Hart details some of the history of a criminal culture within the New Zealand police force which goes back at least until the 1970s.
19/10/10 – More evidence of endemic corruption in the New Zealand obfuscated.
23/10/10 Superintendent Gary Smith gets promoted to a plum job despite a secret police report which states he acted unlawfully and totally mismanaged a complaint about the unlawful arrest of a justice of the peace. No charges have been laid.
23/10/10 It is discovered that the Independent Police Conduct Authority has decided that a report which highlights illegal actions by police does not need to be published because it “is not in the public interest.
27/10/10 – All Black coach Graham Henry gets let off a fine after being snapped travelling at over 30kmh above the speed limit.
28/10/10 – Complaints of of “widespread police involvement” in local body electioneering in Manurewa and Papakura are being investigated by the police and the Independent Police Conduct Authority. The Authority never bothers to report back about this investigation.
14/11/10 – The mother of a 12-year-old beaten by bullies is turned away from Christchurch Police station when she went to make a complaint because there were no officers on duty to deal with the matter.
18/11/10 – Former police officer Dairne Olwen Cassidy gets home detention after being found guilty of wilfully attempting to pervert the course of jusitice.
18/11/10 – Former police officer Anthony Dale Bridgman already notorious for another incident involving his dangerous driving of a police vehicle, is back in court again.
30/10/10 – It is revealed that former Bay of Plenty district commander Gary Smith who was appointed to a senior role had previously been accused of sexual harrassment and a secret settlement of $20,000 paid out.
04/12/10 – Another police chase, another crash.
17/12/10 – Police are found to have failed to comply with rules regarding pursuits in case where the fleeing driver was seriously injured.
17/12/10 Most crime in New Zealand goes unreported, a survey finds. Of those quizzed, 24 percent said they felt the police would not or could not be able to deal with the situation.
20/12/10 – West Auckland police constables Alan Michael Douglas and Gareth John Needham are found guilty of assault. This is not the last the courts will hear of this pair.
01/01/11 Bay of Plenty police refuse to reveal how many people were arrested during New Year celebrations.
03/01/11 – Superintendent Ted Cox lies to a fellow officer after being pulled over for speeding on the Auckland southern motorway
05/01/11 – Another police chase, another crash.
07/01/11 Another “hurry up” issued to the police in regard to the culture change required as per the 2008 Bazley inquiry into police sexual misconduct.
20/01/11 Another “hurry up”, this time from the State Services Commission is issued to the police in regard to the 2008 Bazley inquiry into police sexual misconduct.
21/01/11 – Constable Raymond Dunbar is convicted of drunk driving.
29/01/11 – Police National manager of youth services Superintendent Bill Harrison is under investigation for using police letterhead to lie in an effort to get out of a parking ticket.
31/01/11 – Police are highlighted are persistent breakers of the do not drive while on the cell phone law.
04/02/11 – Senior Constable Terry Beatson is found to have accessed the police computer system 17 times in order to assist his wife in a custody case against he ex-husband. Beatson gets to keep his job.
18/02/11 – Detective Sergeant Mark McHattie is identified as having lied about a backlog of child abuse cases in the Wairarapa being cleared up.
20/03/11 – Deputy Commissioner Viv Rickard failed to act for two months on allegations of criminal conduct by former police headquarters superintendent Jon Moss. An investigation was subsequently launched when the details were discovered.
24/02/11 – Police are ordered to make an apology after being found to have released personal information containing untested factual allegations concering Tony Veitch to the media
09/03/11 – Police are accused of assaulting a young autistic man who was then presented as the face of looting in Christchurch.
09/03/11 – North Shore police use a taser to stop a protester.
20/03/11 – Its revealed that Deputy Commissioner Viv Rickard did not act on allegations about a former colleague’s relationship with a senior civil servant which later led to a criminal investigation.
29/03/11 – Start of the trail of Sergeant Martin James Folan who is subsequently found not guilty of assalt but who’s actions remain under investigation by the IPCA authority – two years later and nothing to show for it.
16/04/11 – Police are under investigation for attempting to convince other officers not to testify against sergeant Martin Folan in an assault case.
17/04/11 – Court actions against the police and corrections department come up against both political and institutional obstacles in what is described as a “David vs Goliath Battle for justice”.
17/04/11 – Another police chase , another crash.
17/04/11 Another innocent man sent to jail by dodgy police work finally receives compensation while the original case remains open and the police officers involved show little remorse or even interest in solving the case.
06/05/11 – IPCA says rules were broken in police pursuit which ended in fatality but not action required or recommendations necessary.
08/05/11 – Detective Sergeant Peter Govers is named as the officer responsible for sending two innocent men to jail. Govers keeps his job, even after subsequently being labelled as “reprehensible” for pressuring a female informant into giving him a blow job.
09/05/11 – Constable Raymond John Dunbar loses appeal against his conviction for drunk driving.
17/05/11 – Police officer Matthew Blythe fails in his bid to overturn a conviction for punching a very drunk suspect in the head as the man was being handcuffed by other officers.
18/05/11 – Senior Constable Matthew Leslie Blythe loses an appeal in the Court of Appeal against a conviction for assault.
26/05/11 – Former Detective Inspector Mark Franklin is arrested and charged with drug dealing in Rarotonga.
31/05/11 – Nelson police arrest and charge a man for theft after he took pies out of a rubbish tin at the back of a petrol station. The owners of the petrol station had twice told police these did not want to press charges. The charges were withdrawn in court.
16/06/11 An unnamed police officer found guilty of assault after punching a prisoner escapes conviction after a judge agrees that such a conviction would have effects out of all proportion.
25/06/11 More evidence of historic and systematic police perjury surfaces.
20/06/11 – Contables Alan Michael Douglas and Gareth John Needham are found guilty of assault.
11/07/11 – Constable Jamie Anderson was driving on an unlit rural road and texting on his cellphone when he ran over a pedestrian. No problem says ICPA.
11/07/11 – Unhappy with coverage of the police beating of an autistic man Christchurch Central Police Area Commander Inspector Derek Erasmus announce an investigation into TVNZ’s Sunday programme.
18/07/11 – Another police chase, another crash.
27/07/11 – Former police officer Neil Robert Ford gets an early release after being sent to jail for perjury.
28/07/11 – Police employee Patrick Bruce Phipps is found guilty of charges of illegal possession of a Finnish Valmet semi-automatic rifle and a Czechoslovakian VZ58 fully automatic rifle.
02/08/11 – Superintendent Ted Cox finally pays a $120 speeding ticket after first going through $8,000 of police budget trying to get out of it.
13/08/11 – Senior Constable Michael Lenihan is fined $250 for careless use of a motor vehicle after doing a u-turn in front of motorcycle resulting in the death of the rider. Lenihan was acquited of dangerous driving causing death and dangerous driving causing injury
22/08/11 – Police finally find a good enough reason to drop charges against am autistic man they had beaten and held in custody for stealing two light bulbs before charging him with looting after the Christchurch earthquake.
24/08/11 – Hasting Senior Sergeant Luke Shadbolt says to the media about a missing girl “she is missing, but it’s not the story of the century. And if we had a major concern about the disappearance, we would have [issued] a media release about it”.
05/09/11 Police drop charges against Tiki Taane after he was arrested for expressing his opinion on what police describe was a “misunderstanding”.
25/08/11 – Detective Inspector Dave Archibald is promoted to a senior position despite his illegal searching of the police computer system for information to assist officers’ defence in a pack rape charge.
13/09/11 – Police blunders at Pike River Mine subject to questioning at inquiry. Assistant police commissioner Grant Nicholls does his best.
16/09/11 – Illegal actions of police in regard to Urewera detailed in a Supreme Court judgement that couldn’t previously be released.
18/09/11 – Another police chase, another crash.
20/09/11 – Police apologise for breach of privacy after faxing a confidential parenting order to media.
25/09/11 Police get a caning from the Supreme Court for knowingly breaking to law to illegal gain evidence. No charges are ever laid and the government changes to law to cover the officers concerned.
29/09/11 – New Zealand police officers are described as racist by visiting journalists here to cover the Rugby World Cup.
04/10/11 – Police Inspector Turepu Keenan is snapped texting on his cellphone.
09/10/11 – Another police chase, another crash.
19/10/11 – Accusations that police are lying about security threats in order to get their residential properties improved.
25/10/11 – Deputy Police Commissioner Rob Pope admits that he knew about the history of Superintendent Gary Smith who had previously been found to have acted illegally before he was later promoted to a plum police job.
30/10/11 – Superintendent Gary Smith appointed to the plum London job had previously been accused of sexually harassing a female police employee.
09/11/11 Police are accused for forcing an Indian woman suspected of being in the country illegally to sign documents.
17/11/11 – Police staff are among those arrested in a drug swoop.
17/11/11 – Former Nelson policeman Garry Dunn is found not guilty of two assaults but resigns from the police after having illegally accessed the police computer system to assist his defence in the case.
21/11/11 Dozens of police officers face criminal charges according to details released under an official information request. Very few such cases appear to merit media coverage, it would seem.
22/11/11 – Police officers are found to have broken pursuit rules in a fatal chase.
16/12/11 – Police officers use excessive force in the unjustified arrest of a Christchurch man. District Commander Gary Knowles says the police will not apologise.
22/01/12 Police officers arresting protesters at the Occupy event are filmed all wearing the same ID number in an orchestrated attempt to hide their identities and hamper the processing of any complaints about the actions of individual officers
09/02/12 Chinese tourist Naiju Li lays complaint against the police alleging brutality in their arrest of the 56 year old woman. She suffered a dislocated elbow and required stitches to her face.
02/02/12 – Police are filmed illegally closing a road to support the activities of a corporate
09/02/12 – Police commence an investigation after a 65 year old deaf, mute man dies while in police custody.
17/02/12 Police officer Karis Rewa Charnley makes her first appearance in court after being charged with lending her uniform to someone for use in the theft of a car. The charge Charnley was eventually dismissed after the judge described a “vacuum” in the evidence.
02/02/12 – Police employee Darren Ian Hodgetts admits to providing a drug ring with access to the police computer system.
03/03/12 – Police prosecutor Timothy John Russell Sarah pleads guilty to a representative charge of supplying methamphetamine, four specific charges of supplying the drug and one charge of dishonestly accessing the police computer – the National Intelligence Application.
30/03/12 – Constable David Mear is found not guilty of assault . . . hmmmm.
05/04/12 – Police officer Karis Charnley is charged with being a party to theft , being a party to impersonating a police officer and assault.
11/04/12 – An unnamed police officer appears in court allegedly involved in a collision with another car after doing a U-turn in front of it has appeared in court, charged with careless driving. But the officer is likely to avoid conviction after being offered diversion.
12/04/12 – A unnamed police officer was disciplined after giving false details to the Rotorua harbourmaster after being caught breaching a bylaw while riding a jetski on a lake.
18/04/12 – Various protesters at the Glenn Innes evictions of tenants in government housing claim the police used excessive force
15/04/12 – Detective Sergeant Rod Carpinter receives support after carrying out an illegal raid which was described by a judge as “consciously reckless”. Mr Carpinter was earlier criticised for his involvement in a drug bust in 2005 where his actions were also found to be “unreasonable and unlawful”.
20/04/12 Superintendent Bill Harrison, one of the country’s top policemen, was found guilty of serious misconduct after accusations he used police letterhead to dodge a $200 parking fine. Superintendent Bill Harrison retired on May 17 last year, before an independent investigation was completed so no disciplinary action was taken.
24/04/12 – Detective Senior Sergeant Mark McHattie who was at the centre of a major child-abuse cover-up has kept his job after a code-of-conduct investigation but police will not reveal the outcome of the long inquiry.
29/04/12 – A Northland man who received paralysing neck injuries while in police custody is in a “bad way” after surgery and is struggling to breathe on his own, his parents say.
03/05/12 – Constable David Mear returns to work after being found not guilty of using excessive force against a man who suffered a broken eye socket and cut to the head
16/05/12 – An unnamed police officer resigned late last year after being investigated for theft in the aftermath of the February 2011 Christchurch earthquake.
04/06/12 – Police officer Gareth John Needham has lost his attempt to appeal his conviction for assault to the Supreme Court.
25/06/12 – Police officer Marcus Guy Andrew Molnar is convicted of theft after admitted stealing cash and soft drinks from a bar at the police station on four separate occasions
11/07/12 – National Crime Manager Detective Superintendent Rodney Drew defends the police force’s organised abuse of the court system by arranging the false arrest and court hearing of an undercover officer
11/07/12 – Inspector Paul Dimery resigns and, in a parting shot, tells the media that the New Zealand police force is compromising front-line safety because it is being run like a business
12/07/12 – Senior Constable Tony Andrews is found to have acted inappropriately due to a conflict of interest, and to have engaged incoercion and the breaching of privacy.
14/07/12 – Another police chase, another crash – three dead, police failed to follow policy.
28/07/12 – Another police chase, another crash
07/08/12 – Senior Sergeant Rod Carpinter and Constable John Grantham escape criminal charges after having “materially misled” the court about a a drugs raid.
14/08/12 – Police justifications for using anti-terrorist officers to raid Kim Dotcom’s home were partly based on claims the tycoon assaulted a former staff member with his stomach.
24/08/12 – A police officer is filmed driving like a bloody idiot tail gating traffic on the open highway
28/08/12 – New Zealand police have been praised by the White House for their role in the case against Kim Dotcom, but are keeping it secret.
29/08/12 – An unnamed police officer appeared in court charged with illegal hunting. The officer appeared in the Blenheim District Court after earlier denying a charge of hunting deer and goats on land at Blue Mountain near Ward on April 17 without the authority of the property owner.
17/09/12 – Senior Constable Sean Ramkissoon accuses senior police officers of conspiracy, corruption and dishonesty, and his employment grievance escalated to the Employment Court.
22/09/12 – Details of the police force’s idiocy, excessive use of force, general illegality, and perjury in relation to the Kim Dotcom affairs starts to become public.
25/09/12 – Police officer Jan Paul de Moor appears in court charged with assault
25/09/12 – Its revealed that Police Commissioner Peter Marshall signed the indemnity order which accepts potential liability if Kim Dotcom lays a claim for damages, it has been confirmed.
27/09/12 – The police are slated in the 2012 Ombudsman’s annual report to parliament after it topped the list of crown agencies ducking and diving official requests for information.
29/09/12 – Police receive a rebuke in court for leaving three drunk men in a vehicle with the keys in the ignition. Judge David Saunders told police it was a recipe for disaster.
29/09/12 – Police are heavily criticised for failing to abandon a pursuit that endangered the public and culminated in the deaths of two young men.
03/10/12 – Two girls, aged 14 and 16, are arrested, denied contact with their family or a lawyer, strip searched, and held in a police cell for 36 hours . The 16 year old, who was nursing a baby, was forced to express breast milk into a cell sink.
13/10/12 – Jakob Christie had his neck broken by a police baton more than three years ago. He is still waiting for the police to do something about it.
14/10/12 – Detective Senior Sergeant Al Symonds ignores evidence and spends 18 months dragging an innocent man’s name through the mud only to have the case dismissed in minutes.
16/10/12 – Police wait nine months after receiving instructions from the Minister before contacting a family to take formal criminal complaint
18/10/12 – Few of the recommendations of a commission of inquiry into police conduct, concluded five years ago, have been fully implemented. Acting Police Commissioner Viv Rickard says he accepts the finding that more focus is needed on sexual assault investigations.
19/10/12 – A report by the Office of the Auditor-General reveals an “unacceptable” level of inappropriate sexual behaviour within police and said improvements were still needed in training staff who were involved in adult sexual assault cases.
20/10/12 – Police funding cuts have seen sex crime investigation courses slashed and firearms training reduced.
21/10/12 – Increasing numbers of teenagers are being held in police custody for days, breaching United Nations protocols and sparking concern from human rights agencies. Child, Youth and Family statistics show the number of young people held for more than 24 hours in police cells almost trebled in the past three years.
21/10/12 – Detective Sergeant Mark Keane and Detective Dale Forman were criticised in a stinging Independent Police Conduct Authority report for failing to fully investigate claims that Tineke Foley had been raped by a male nurse at a Christchurch mental health facility.
23/10/12 – Police are found to be breaching basic human rights in the practises employed in the detention of young people in police cells. A review is called for, no action is taken.
25/10/12 – A police blunder results in four alleged Chinese people smugglers being awarded a $2000 payout.
02/11/12 – Police ignore three 111 calls to respond to an accident.
08/11/12 – Morrinsville Police Officer, Constable Shaan Stevens, is convicted of stealing $200 from a wallet handed in to lost and found.
12/11/12 – Another police chase, another crash.
19/11/12 – Detective Jamie Woods is caught out providing a transcript containing “mistakes” as part of an application for a search warrant to intercept the phone calls and emails of senior Switched on Gardener staff.
19/11/12 – Constable Gary Neil Morgan of the North Shore Police strategic traffic unit is charged with careless driving after he crashed his patrol car into a tree.
28/11/12 – A convicted drug dealer is freed on bail pending an appeal because police involved in an investigation were found to have acted corruptly following a staged search for evidence against an undercover officer.
21/12/12 – Mikayla Paul is found guilty of assaulting a woman may yet be discharged without conviction.
22/12/12 – Police go over the top in protecting John Key from having to keep his word about buying a Christmas dinner for two Wellington men.
24/12/12 – A Hawkes Bay family is left shocked and upset with the treatment they received from police after an officer smashed their windscreen with his torch at a drink-drive checkpoint this week.
15/01/13 – Constable Perry Griffin is accused of excessive use of force after making an arrest.
20/01/13 – After cut backs in fire arms training, almost 1000 new gun safes are removed from police cars because of potential security issues, just months after they were rolled out across the fleet.
31/01/13 – An unnamed police officer who was sacked for using excessive force loses his case for unjustified dismissal.
06/02/13 – Another police chase, another death
11/02/13 – A fifteen year old girl lays an assualt complaint against police after being left bloodied and brusied when police were breaking up a party.
15/02/13 – An unnamed police officer admits receiving money from people who had criminal charges against them dropped. At the request of defence counsel Pip Hall, Judge Brian Callaghan did not enter convictions because the defence wants to argue for a discharge without conviction.
20/02/13 – The Independent Police Conduct Authority promises to try harder after being found out for unnecessarily keeping reports secret.
21/02/13 – A police blunder in a major drugs investigation has revealed the identity of confidential informants and undercover officers and their secret intelligence-gathering techniques.
23/02/13 – A former undercover officer comes clean about spying on protest groups, environmental organisations and trade unions.
23/02/13 – The IPCA finds that police could have prevented a murder had they acted earlier on information received.
01/03/13 – Hundreds of police officers across the country are withdrawn from the front line and told not to interact with the public, after failing a key fitness test
03/03/13 – Another police chase, another accident.
10/03/13 – Police officers who deliberately faked their uniform badge numbers to avoid being identified as they weighed into a violent public protest will keep their jobs and won’t be investigated by the force’s watchdog.
16/03/13 – The police attempt to silence a retired officer for speaking to the media about the Teina Pora case.
16/03/13 – Another police chase, another crash
27/03/13 – Police still need time to introduce changes identified as necessary six years earlier following an investigation in its culture and practises.
27/03/13 – About 20 people protest outside Masterton police station over claims young people have been mistreated during arrest. The protesters included two teenagers who alleged they had bones broken while being arrested.
09/04/13 – An analysis of police statistics highlight the fact that Maori youth are far more likely to go to court after an arrest than pakeha youth.
13/04/13 – Another police chase, another crash
13/04/13 – More on the orchestrated miscarriage of justice in the Teina Pora case.
15/04/13 – Retiring Detective Senior Sergeant Grant Coward says police officers are leaving the force in droves, frustrated with the “budgets, the judiciary, new systems in place alienating the community and traffic taking precedence over everything,”
17/04/13 – Police admit to “dropping the ball” by failing to pay more than $5000 in rent to a tiny Christchurch community group run by volunteers and war veterans.
20/04/13 – Former drug squad detective Ernest Langford escapes jail after being found guilty of stealing thousands of dollars from a police safe and colleagues desk. Charges involving the theft of thousands of more dollars were dropped.
21/04/13 – Comments by Constable Paul Sharples about judges results in Auckland’s top police officer making an apology and starting an investigation into the way Sharples handled the case.
24/04/13 – Police sergeant Blair Donaldson pleads guilty to careless driving. Magistrate Ngaire Mascelle say a conviction would outweigh the severity of the offence and discharged Donaldson without conviction.
05/05/13 – The Independent Police Conduct Authority has received two complaints about the nation’s second-highest-ranking police officer, Mike Bush – but it will not be taking any action . The complaints were in response to Bush’s comments at the funeral of former police officer Bruce Hutton, a detective who was found to have planted evidence used to wrongfully convict Arthur Allan Thomas of murder.
09/05/13 – Another police chase, another crash.
17/05/13 – Police officer Peter Pakau appears in court on a raft of drug charges.
12/05/13 – Another police chase, another crash.
21/05/13 – an unnamed police officer appears in court accused of asking for sexual favours in return for not prosecuting a motorist on a driving charge.
06/06/13 – Police refuse to engage with a lawyer representing teenagers seeking discussions about possible compensation.
18/06/13 – Hastings police officer, Adam Dunnett, 37, charged with indecently assaulting five women from a Hawke’s Bay surf club loses his bid to keep his identity suppressed.
08/07/13 – An investigation is begun after an unnamed police officer is accused of assault.
09/07/13 – Another police chase, another crash.
24/07/13 – Two expert reports about an incident in which a wedding guest was run over on a Waikato road were ignored by a police crash analyst, a coroner’s inquest has been told.
04/08/13 – Lawyers are demanding a review of how police intercept private communications after a photo-journalist’s cellphone logs and messages, including exchanges with a lawyer, were obtained in and inquiry instigated by the PM.
05/08/13 – Police officer Dugal Matheson is slammed by a judge and convicted for dragging his former partner around by her hair and “manhandling” her son.
07/08/13 – Police officer Lotovale Ulufafo Solofa Perese appears in court charged with a variety of offences involving the smuggling of contraband for delivery to people being held in police cells.
12/08/13 – Detective Sergeant Mike Blowers appears in court charged with supplying methamphetamine and cannabis.
16/08/13 – Police have accidentally shot a man as he lay on the floor of a Hastings house while being taken into custody this afternoon.
18/08/13 – Concerns are raised after police do not lay charges against a care giver who locked an austic man in a flat and who later died in a fire at the property.
23/08/13 – An unnamed Waitakere police dog handler twice used excessive and unlawful force.
27/08/13 – Police breach confidentiality agreement concerning compensation paid to the mother of Halatau Naitoko.
29/08/13 – The police decide to take no action of illegal spying.
31/08/13 – Police carrying out a “cold case” investigation of the Crewe murders demand an alibi from Arthur Thomas and members of his family.
04/09/13 – Officers working in OFCANZ fear internal reprisals if they were to tell police bosses about inappropriate conduct.
07/09/13 – Casual racism, ignorance, disrespect and insensitivity on the part of the police when dealing with the family of a murder victim exacerbate their grief.
09/09/13 – A sober woman left stranded in a pub car park in the early hours after police confiscated her car keys was raped shortly afterwards.
15/09/13 – The family of Danielle King, 15, claim she was “thrown around like a rag doll” by officers breaking up a party.
15/09/13 – Police are being slammed for a “monumental blunder” in which they searched and damaged an Auckland family’s home in the hunt for a man who brutally bashed a police officer – but they were at the wrong house.
15/09/13 – Hawkes Bay police leaving the force in droves amid a “draconian climate” after a regional restructure .
19/09/13 – Inspector Richard Wilkie is discharged without conviction for assaulting two teen agers.
21/09/13 – Police have agreed to pay a Southland farmer $14,000 in damages and costs after armed officers entered his property without permission and, in a resulting tussle, pepper-sprayed him, punched him in the face and Tasered him while he was handcuffed.
22/09/13 – Road safety data being submitted by the public is being ignored by the police.
24/09/13 – It is revealed that police have not investigated the February 2011 death of a man in custody and have still not completed an investigation into another death of a man in custody dating back to October 2010.
28/09/13 – The detective who blew the whistle on his alleged drug-dealing boss was removed from his squad and investigated before senior police took his concerns seriously.
28/09/13 – Central District commander Superintendent Russell Gibson, in a letter to convicted child rapist Robin Peter Abraham’s wife, described one of the rape victims as a willing party to the sexual abuse.
29/09/13 – A martial arts black belt who became a morphine-dependent invalid after a beating by Senior Sergeant Ron Greatorex , has won a five-year battle for compensation. Greatorex has never been charged and still works as a senior-ranking police officer in Christchurch.
10/10/13 – Police Association president Greg O’Connor says most complaints made against the police are from “perennial complainers who complain about everything to everyone”.
13/10/13 – Another police chase, another accident, this one resulting in serious injuries. The IPCA finds that the police should have called off the chase well before the accident took place.
17/10/13 – No apology and no charges after police who broke a man’s neck are found to have used excessive force.
17/10/13 – Police prosecutor Brent William Thomson pleads guilty to possession and use of methamphetamine and cannabis.
17/10/13 – Another police chase, another crash.
20/10/13 – It is proved in the Privvy Council that police use dodgy evidence and failed to provide all information to the defence in the Mark Lundy case.
06/11/13 – Police admit to having lied to the public about not receiving any complaints in relation to the Roast Buster case.
08/11/13 – Police threaten a blogger in an effort to stifle public discussion surrounding its own inaction and mendacity concerning the RoastBuster rapes.
18/11/13 – Senior Constable Gordon Stanley Meyer pleads guilty to bribery, corruption, and sexual assault.
18/11/13 – Police officers Brent Liddle and Gerard Russell are convicted of assault but discharged without conviction.
18/11/13 – Police Senior Constable Gordon Stanley Meyer pleads guilty to bribery, corruption and indecent assult. Another unnamed police officer was also investigated but no charges were laid.
19/11/13 – Police Senior Constable Keith Rose pleads guilty to assault after grabbing a referee around the throat.
20/11/13 – An innocent man is mauled by a police dog.
22/11/13 – Police Sergeant Brent English is investigated after a junior police officer complains that he made a lewd suggestion and exposed his penis to her.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/229037/police-accused-of-double-standards-by-greens
05/12/13 – police refuse to explain how a dangerous criminal escaped from Dunedin Police Station.
11/12/13 – Sergeant James Casson takes a case to the Employment Relations Authority claiming he was subject to “bullying and threatening behaviour” by members of the Hamilton police management who had “closed ranks” against him.
11/12/13 Tasman district police are ordered by the Emplyment Relations Authority to re-hire its business services manager after finding his redundancy was invalid. Derek Coffey had worked for police for 23 years before losing his job in February as part of a nationwide police restructure.
The ERA found his redundancy was invalid and he was unjustifiably disadvantaged by police’s failure to redeploy him to an available suitable position.
11/12/13 – Police Commissioner Peter Marshall admitted to police failings in the “Roast Busters” case before going on to say that a drop in the public confidence of the police from 82 percent to 76 percent wasn’t much of a change.
13/12/13 – Police Constable Tako Cocker is arrested and suspended from duty after being arrested in Auckland for allegedly damaging a taxi side mirror after a dispute over the fare.
20/12/13 – A group of Christchurch police officers are threaten to sue Police Commissioner Peter Marshall for defamation over comments made about leadership at the Christchurch South Station where corrupt ex-cop Gordon Stanley Meyer worked.
17/01/14 – Christchurch Police officer Trevor Hinkley is convicted then discharged after pleading guilty to stealing $2750 meant to go to a victim support organisation.
22/01/14 – Christchurch District Police Commander Gary Knowles is expected to make an apology to a man arrested in November 2011 when the arresting officers were found to have used excessive force leaving an innocent man bruised and humiliated.
19/02/14 – Police use $12 million of funds set aside for crime fighting to pay for redunancies.
23/03/14 – Queenstown police are accused of closing ranks to protect an officer caught on CCTV assaulting a taxi driver.
04/04/14 – Former Police officer Timothy Phillip Hartnell is charged with assault following an incident when he was working as an officer.
14/04/14 – Another police chase, another serious injury.
24/04/14 – Police refuse to answer an Official Information Act request for details about a government minister interfering in a criminal investigation on the grounds of “maintenance of the law”.
01/05/14 – Another police chase, another serious injury.
01/05/14 – Greymouth police sergeant Matthew Charles Frost who had nine drinks before crashing his car on a West Coast country road was convicted of careless driving but let off without punishment.
02/05/14 – Detective Inspector Mark Gutry resigns from the police before an employment investigation into the circumstances leading to him escaping charges in relation to a criminal sex complaint.
03/05/14 – It becomes apparent Superintendent John Tims buckled to political pressure in January 2014 after receiving a phone call from a government Minister requesting that a domestic violence prosecution be subject to review. Police National Head Quarters claims to have not been advised of the political interference until two months later when an Official Information request was made by media. Police National Head Quarters did not advise the Minister of Police about the situation until 28 April 2014.
04/05/14 http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11249346
08/05/14 – Police are found to have acted unlawfully in a ”disrespectful and degrading” breach of human rights when hundreds of New Zealanders taking part in a charity event to raise money for the Christchurch earthquake appeal were unlawfully detained.
24/05/14 – It is revealed that two Auckland police staff allegedly filmed themselves in a sex act during work hours and sent the footage to a junior colleague as an invitation to join them.
05/06/14 – Another police chase, another crash
18/06/14 – Another police chase, another fatality.
22/06/14 – http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11279057
26/06/14 – Another police chase another fatality
04/07/14 – Detective Inspector Chris Page admits that a murder could have been prevented were it not for a series of errors by the police.
08/07/14 – Police apologise for failing to tell the mother of a child assault victim about their decision to downgrade the charge.
08/07/14 – http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/10241968/Victims-mum-angered-by-leniency-towards-assailant
09/07/14 – Another police chase, another accident resulting in serious injury.
14/07/14 – It is revealed that Counties Manukau Police have been “cooking the books” with statistics to make it look like burgalry crimes have reduced.
17/07/14 – http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/10275505/Marae-angry-at-cops-waking-kids
18/07/14 – A coroner has criticised the actions of police officers who confronted an armed man, saying their mistakes had a snow-balling effect that ended in him being shot dead.
29/07/14 – A woman who drove straight to Whangarei police station to report an attempted carjacking was told to ring 111 to get a police officer to attend.
05/08/14 – Detective Benjamin Joel admits in court that police bungled the collection of evidence which was subsequently lost before a murder trial.
10/08/14 – Drug dealers, burglars and drink-drivers have walked free after a police botch-up led to officers carrying out illegal investigations. This is the third time the same botch up has occurred.
14/08/14 – http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player/20145719
15/08/14 – Police pay a pittance in compensation to a women who spent $100,000 to find evidence evidence of murder that police ignored.
15/08/14 – another police chase, another fatality.
15/08/14 – It is revealed that police ignored an IPCA instruction to carry out a conciliation meeting.
17/08/14 – Police apologise to a woman for the second time after botching a domestic violence case. The latest apology was for the assigned police presecutor not turning up in Court for a hearing which resulted in the assailant receiving a second discharge without conviction after having plead guilty to breaching a protection order.
18/08/14 – Former police officer Timothy Phillip Hartnell was discharged without conviction on an assault charge relating to him handcuffing a child for riding a bicycle on a footpath.
28/08/14 – it is found that police officers repeatedly broke the law and used unjustified excessive force when shutting down parties.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player/20147968
04/09/14 – Police Constable Setu Pio has his conviction for assaulting a pregnant woman overturned.
08/09/14 – Queenstown Police Constable Jenny McNee, 44, was found guilty of using offensive language in a racist tirade against Malaysian-born taxi driver Ganesh Paramanathan while arguing over a fare. McNee was discharged without conviction.
25/09/14 – New Zealand police provided incorrect statistical information to Minister Anne Tolley to bolster moves to give police more powers.
28/09/14 – It is revealed that Manukau District Commander, Superintendent John Tims, instructed staff to not respond to a journalist’s OIA request about the fraudulent nature of the area’s reported crime statistics.
01/10/14 – Lower Hutt police are slammed by the coroner for taking more than seven months to interview a man who supplied alcohol to a teen found dead the next morning from alcohol poisoning.
02/10/14 – It is revealed that a Christchurch police officer ignored two instructions to abandon a chase which posed an unjustified risk to members of the public and which resulted in the death of a 15-year-old.
09/10/14 – It is revealed that two Timaru police officers, acting in collusion with a police prosecutor and an Area Commander, committed perjury.
09/10/14 – Nearly three years after the original incident, is found to have used excessive force by shooting a man with a taser in a manner which was disproportionate to the perceived threat.
11/10/14 – It is revealed that police spent more than three years covering up the fact that illegal drugs were being stolen by police from the Huntly station’s evidence safe.
05/11/14 – Another police chase, another accident resulting in serious injury
09/11/14 – An unnamed Counties Manukau District police constable is disciplined for flirting with a rape complainant he met at a party.
09/11/14 – Two Auckland Central police officers Sergeant Neil Barton and Jo Barton resign before an investigation into them filming themselves in a sex act is completed.
12/11/14 – Police confirm that yet another officer from Central Otago is under investigation. Police would not confirm the name of the officer nor details of what the investigation was looking into. The investigation comes hard on the heels of a series of investigations involving officers in the Central Otago/Lakes District.
16/11/14 – Recruits at the Police Training College are stood down pending investigations of bullying.
20/11/14 – More people are being killed each year as a result of police pursuits.
20/11/14 – Another police chase another accident resulting in serious injuries. The IPCA finds that various unnamed officers failed to follow police policy and one officer broke the law during the chase.
25/11/14 – Another police chase, another crash, this time five people hospitalised.
27/11/14 – Another police chase another accident, this time leaving an uninvolved, innocent man with serious injuries. The IPCA finds that an unnamed police officer failed to comply with policy in relation to communication and site selection during the first attempted deployment of the road spikes. He also failed to comply with Police policy in relation to communication during the second attempted deployment of the road spikes. The IPCA noted: “The haphazard nature of both attempted deployments placed [the officer], Police staff and other road users at risk of harm.
28/11/14 – Police officer Peter Pakau is sentenced to eight years jail on a raft of charges including drug dealing.
02/12/14 – An unnamed Cromwell police officer is charged with assault after an investigation into an allegation of excessive force at the Cromwell police station
03/12/14 – Flaxmere Police Constable Shane Greville charged with dangerous driving causing injury after an accident in September.
04/12/14 – The public’s trust and confidence in the performance of the police has dropped. Acting Deputy Commissioner Grant Nicholls said the results were pleasing.
11/12/14 – Two Central Otago teenagers receive letters of apology from the district’s highest-ranking police officer for the unacceptable actions of some police officers earlier this year. The one and a-half page letters, which were written and hand-delivered by Central Otago sub-area supervisor Senior Sergeant Ian Kerrisk last month, relate to a series of incidents – where the teenagers were falsely accused of committing petty crimes, and the subsequent unprofessional treatment and alleged harassment of the teenagers – over a period of time several months ago.
11/12/14 – An unnamed Tauranga police officer is found to have used excessive force when choking a mentally ill 14-year old boy.
12/12/14 – A Central Otago Senior Constable admits in court to using a police-issued iPhone to make an intimate visual recording of a teenager drying herself after taking a shower.
21/12/14 – The police cover up the fact that National Party MP and former police officer Mike Sabin is being investigated for assault.
10/01/15 – Hamilton police officer, Senior Constable Keith Ralph Paul Day, pleads guilty to multiple thefts from his station’s exhibit room and lost and found section.
15/01/15 – South Island police are criticised for dragging their heels in a homicide investigation into the death of an infant.
15/01/15 – An unnamed Marlborough police officer is suspected being at fault when the police car he/she was driving was involved in an accident.
16/01/15 – A young couple and a police officer escape serious injury when the police officer pulled out into traffic on State Highway One without looking.
19/01/15 – 100 people protested outside the Whakatane police station after an unnamed local constable escaped both criminal charges and internal disciplinary procedures after admitting he had shot a dog which wandered onto his property with a crossbow. The bolt struck the dog on the left side of its chest but missed vital organs. In agony for hours at the time and in discomfort for months after being shot by the police constable, the dog has since made a full recovery.
22/01/15 – An unnamed Tauranga police officer was found to have failed to call a medical practitioner to assess a man who was bleeding from the mouth, nose and eyes after being involved in a bar fight and then, during his arrest, punched in the head several times by another officer. Various other procedural errors were made regarding the man’s arrest but an allegation by the man of excessive force by the police was not believed by the IPCA.
02/02/15 – Auckland police officers are shown to be hypocrites when it comes to speeding.
05/02/15 – Another police chase another accident. This time, the officer involved in the chase is found to have unjustifiably engaged in dangerous driving when pursuing a fleeing driver up the wrong side of the motorway, State Highway 1, near Tawa.
12/02/15 – It is revealed that two unnamed Auckland police officers failed to take action against a security guard accused of the sexual assault of a women patient at Auckland Hospital. The guard, Davinder Singh, was later arrested and convicted of a similar assault a year later.
14/02/15 – http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/66183489/cop-suspended-for-facebook-posts
25/02/15 – http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11407502
24/02/15 – http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/warning-man-illegally-tasered-calls-tighter-restrictions-video-6242809
01/04/15 – Police refuse to take another look at a murder case even after the person convicted of it is found by the Privvy Council to be innocent.
03/03/15 – Police illegally intercepted phone calls between a man and his lawyer.
19/03/15 – Police fail to take threats of 1080 being added to bay formula seriously.
25/03/15 – It is revealed that police are collecting personal information from individuals and companies without first obtaining a warrant, instead police are threatening prosecution if the information is not handed over. Some criminal cases have been put at risk and police refuse to maintain any records on this method of information collection.
02/04/15 – The parents of one of the victims of the Carterton balloon tragedy criticise the police over the handling of their daughter’s body.
06/04/15 – Police refuse assistance to a man who received on-line death threats for wearing a turban.
07/04/15 = A Marlborough police officer is to be charged with careless driving after a crash on State Highway 1 in January. The unnamed highway patrol officer performed a u-turn in front of a following car with two passengers on a straight section of road, at Dead Man Stream near Clarence, north of Kaikoura, on January 14.
07/04/15 – A worrying trend is seen in police refusal to take action in following up complaints about crimes even when evidence is made available to them .
. . . and the beat goes on.
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