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Allegations of Abuse
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The commission of inquiry into police
conduct is looking at least a dozen complaints about the way police handled
allegations of sexual misconduct by their own officers. At a hearing on Friday morning the
commission agonised over whether to hear the cases in public. A public meeting of the commission
of inquiry into police conduct is a rarity. It's only met for four days out
of a scheduled 34. Sparked by allegations of police
rape by Rotorua woman Louise Nicholas and Kaitaia woman Judith Garrett, if
the commission decides to meet in secret, the public may not get to hear
about other cases. "There are at least a dozen
of those that are completely unrelated to the Kaitaia and Rotorua
instances," says Kristy McDonald, the lawyer for police. The commission still has to wade
through 200 police files, and wants to ensure any future court cases are
fair. The issue for this commission is
if it does not meet in private is there a real risk of any contamination of
any potential criminal process. Both the complainants and the
police want the inquiry to be held in public, but the police union is asking
for officers names to be automatically suppressed. Media lawyers also oppose keeping
proceedings behind closed doors. The press, their lawyers claim,
must be able to tell the public what's going on in the inquiry. "Why should people be
restricted from saying to each other things which are true?" asks New
Zealand Herald Lawyer, Bruce Gray. The commission has three months to report back to the
government. |
