Waikato Times
February 2, 2004

Bleak prospects for the accused
Editorial

Clint Rickards planned his career path in the police from his early days on the beat. From cadet to detective in Rotorua to this country's youngest district commander in the Waikato, then on to a stint as assistant commissioner. That appointment came in September, 2001. Rickards had impressed the top brass by getting results in this region and they wanted him in Wellington. He told this newspaper at the time: "I mapped out the direction I wanted to take and I wanted to be in this position. It is a great achievement for me."

With that kind of ambition, Rickards could have expected to be New Zealand's next police commissioner. That is now an impossibility. Holding on to his job as Auckland city's district commander is the best he can hope for.

Rickards has become the subject of a government inquiry and a police inquiry into allegations of rape in 1986. The alleged victim reported the rape in 1993 but three policemen accused were cleared, partly due to difficulty amassing evidence given the time that had elapsed. The Police Complaints Authority reviewed the police inquiry in 1995 but restrictions over time limits prevented further action. The authority did, however, criticise the initial investigation.

Complaints authority investigator, former Hamilton Detective Chief Inspector Rex Miller, now appears to be offering some high-level support to complainant Louise Nicholas and has spoken about his unease over the initial police investigation.

There is a sense of scores to be settled in Miller's comments and questions will also be asked about why Ms Nicholas has taken so long to make her concerns known. However, these should not be allowed to cloud the purpose of the inquiry which is to determine –- finally –- exactly what happened.

That is of primary importance but there is a deeper issue here that has prompted an unusual response from the prime minister. Helen Clark has ordered an independent investigation to ensure "any inquiry that is done has full credibility with the public because I think the nature of the allegation is such that the police investigating itself wouldn't be enough". She is right. Public confidence in the police is at risk of being severely undermined and, given the possible failings of previous police investigations in this case, the back-up of a government inquiry is reassuring.

Rickards is now on leave as the inquiries proceed. He stands as a good example of what can happen to those who desire high-profile public positions but who have some kind of shadow in their past. Serious complaints and inquiries are never consigned to history. When they resurface years later they not only have a bearing on the future of the individual involved but on what they represent.

And that is what will be ultimately unforgivable: that an organisation which relies so heavily on public confidence, suddenly finds its faults so glaringly exposed.