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The Evening Post
December 29 1997
Commissioner welcomes scrutiny of NZ police
by Neil Reid
Increased scrutiny of New Zealand Police is welcome
- however, it has not uncovered gross negligence, says Police Commissioner
Peter Doone.
Questions have been asked during 1997 about police handling of several high
profile cases - including the Bain homicide and Peter Ellis' conviction for
child abuse.
The scrutiny has led to an independent review by the Police Complaints
Authority and New Zealand Police into the initial police Bain investigation
and also a review of the conduct of a detective involved in the Ellis case.
Mr Doone told The Post police attended 1.6 million incidents each year.
"Amongst that 1.6 million things we do attend we get some excellent
results and yet there is an enormous focus on the three, four or five
individual cases where there may, and I'm certainly not conceding any of
this, may be some deficiencies.
"I have certainly been concerned about that and have been very active in
inquiring into the validity or otherwise of those. No organisation, or person
or group of people is going to achieve a perfect record.
"But I think our record is pretty good."
Mr Doone said the heavy workload of police meant it could not respond to
every incident with the same amount of detail.
He said the work of police should not be underestimated - comparing the
number of jobs police attend to the Fire Service.
"To put that into perspective, the Fire Service every year attends about
50,000 fire calls, including false alarms. I don't want to minimise what they
do at all, but I just want to say the total volume of police work is about 30
times that of the Fire Service."
However, Mr Doone said he would not accept sloppy investigations from his
officers, but some crimes had to be put ahead of others.
He said he took allegations of negligent police work seriously.
"That (prioritising) leads to a risk that officers may through pressure
of work or otherwise try to take shortcuts and not necessarily ensure quality
is there.
"I have been very active this year in telling my staff that is not
acceptable in my point of view. I am giving a renewed focus to training in a
lot of specialist areas in terms of traffic and crime and so forth to ensure
whatever risks there are (are) minimised or eliminated."
Mr Doone said he was impressed by initiatives from Wellington district police manager
Superintendent Gerry Cunneen to address crime.
He said Wellington,
like most metropolitan cities, had some difficulties with crime and meeting
public expectations.
Mr Doone said he believed increased intelligence sections and a new approach
to responding to burglaries in the district would help attack crime.
"I'm very happy with the quality of work that is going on in Wellington. Gerry
Cunneen is an excellent leader of his district and his officers and staff he
has down there. I have got nothing but the utmost respect and admiration for
them."
Mr Doone said he had been frustrated that none of the 200 extra police
officers delivered under the National-New Zealand First coalition agreement
would serve in the central region - including Wellington, Taranaki, Manawatu, Hawke's Bay
and Wairarapa.
"I guess I am disappointed in some respects that a lot of the frontline
staff are not coming to Wellington.
The priority area has been Auckland and to a
lesser extent Christchurch."
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