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Allegations
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South Auckland's police
chief is labelling officers who go public over problems in the force as
"traitors". Counties Manukau Police
District Commander Steve Shortland has responded to evidence from the trial
of Senior Sergeant Anthony Solomona, who has been found guilty of assaulting
a 17-year old suspect at a petrol station. He says evidence of
police forcing suspects to write apology letters and a photo of a masked
policeman carrying an axe and a machete is disturbing. However, in a leaked
memo, he voices his disappointment over colleagues who run to the media and
let their workmates down by revealing practices they are concerned about. He describes the
perpetrators as "traitors", and suggests they are doing it for
money, for sex or because they are just stupid. The memo also urges
police to dob in colleagues who are speaking to the media. New Zealand First MP
Ron Mark has slammed the memo, saying he is appalled. He says police bosses
are clearly on a witch-hunt, seeking to shut down and bully into silence
officers who are facing problems because of poor resourcing. He says Superintendent
Shortland's comments are tantamount to bullying. Mr Mark says police need to
be able to speak out with their concerns. In one case last month,
Newstalk ZB revealed a police officer had written to the Police News magazine
claiming that officers were recording crime inaccurately on instructions from
their supervisors, in an effort to make the crime statistics look better. The letter, signed
"Doubting Thomas", says "I thought of all the crimes that get
reported where a file number is given and the matter is never investigated...
These uninvestigated crimes must account for around half of all reported
crime". The latest crime
statistics, released yesterday, showed an 8.2 percent decrease in crime in
2004 and that the resolution rate was up 1.1 percent to 44.6 percent of all
offences, a rate which is the envy of other Western police forces according
to Commissioner Rob Robinson. |
