Following notification by the Commissioner of Police of numerous allegations of alleged offending by serving and past police officers in the Investigate magazine article “To Serve and Protect – The Devastating Truth about Police Corruption in New Zealand” I have determined that none of the allegations are matters contemplated by the Police Complaints Authority Act 1988 as requiring investigation or other action by the Authority.
None are presently the subject of complaint to the Authority. Nor has there been a request by the Commissioner under section 22(2) of the Police Complaints Authority Act for the Authority to undertake an investigation into any particular matter. The Act does not contemplate that the Authority should act as, essentially, a Commission of Inquiry into 15 or so years of alleged miscellaneous serious wrongdoing without any specific reference to it.
In my opinion the allegations in their present form are not matters contemplated by the Act as a basis for a Police Complaints Authority inquiry. It is for the Police in the first instance to make such inquiries as they see fit. It will then be a matter for the Commissioner as to whether or not he invokes section 22(2) of the Act and requests the Authority to undertake an investigation into any particular matter.
Justice Lowell Goddard
Police Complaints Authority