Police declined charges against staff in 13 cases where watchdog recommended them
Police did not lay charges against their own staff in 13 cases where the police watchdog said they should.
The figure covers the past three years. The charging data was given to ministers and reported by RNZ on 25 September. Over that period, police ran 272 criminal investigations into police employees. Charges were laid in 86 cases.
Police and the Independent Police Conduct Authority, the body that investigates complaints about police, disagreed on 17 charging decisions. In 13 cases, police laid no charge despite a recommendation to charge from the Authority. In four cases, police laid charges where the Authority had not recommended a charge, the papers said.
The papers also set out what happened in court. About 75 percent of charged police staff were acquitted, compared with about 20 percent in other cases.
Ministers have accepted in principle all 13 of the Authority's recommendations for change to the oversight system. They said they would establish an inspector-general of police.
Under the proposal, the inspector-general would replace the Authority. It would remain an independent Crown entity, a public body kept separate from ministers and police, with a board of two to four extra members including up to two deputy inspectors-general.
Board members would face legal tests for appointment. They must not have been a police employee in the past decade. They must have knowledge or experience in legal, justice or police systems.
The Ministry of Justice and the minister supported giving the new inspector-general power to refer charging decisions about police staff to the solicitor-general, the government's senior prosecutor, where it disagrees with police. That would change the current position, where police have the final say on whether to charge their own staff. Ministry analysis said the current setting looks like a conflict of interest, at least on the surface.
The broader context here will need careful weighing by officials and ministers. A system in which the employer investigates, decides the charge, then records a 75 percent acquittal rate raises questions about the charge threshold, the evidential test and public confidence. That does not by itself answer whether the 13 disputed cases should have gone to court, or whether the four extra prosecutions should not have. For those working in the system, the detail to watch is the design of the referral power, how often it would be used, what standard the solicitor-general would apply and how reasons would be recorded. The board model also matters, as an entity with deputies and outside appointees is a different structure from a single authority if the bar on recent police service holds.
