The Press
February 18, 2004

Examining a culture
Editorial

The investigation into the crisis of confidence in our police force has been placed in capable hands, writes The Press in an editorial.

Running the commission of inquiry into the tangled web of allegations against police officers will be Justice Bruce Robertson and Dame Margaret Bazley. Robertson has presided over several high profile cases and chairs the Law Commission, while Bazley was a tough and effective manager of change in the public sector. Both will bring to the commission the no-nonsense approach required.

Commissions of inquiry have rarely been charged with so important an investigation. Traditionally, few professions have been held in such high respect by New Zealanders as the police. Not even the flawed investigation into the Crewe murders or controversial policing tactics during the 1981 Springbok Tour caused lasting harm to the police image. Our force, it was believed, had had the odd bad apple but not a culture of corruption, abuse or incompetence. That was regarded as the prerogative of Australian forces.

This is one reason why the claims which have now surfaced have so shocked the public and have demanded a swift Government response. Allegations by Louise Nicholas that she was gang raped by officers in the 1980s prompted other women to come forward. They claimed that they too had been raped by officers or that the police had not adequately dealt with rape complaints against an officer or another person. The scale of the crisis of confidence in the police is shown by the standing down of two district commanders, pending investigation of the allegations. In effect, what is being alleged is that officers ignored or even broke the rule of law they were sworn to protect.

Determining whether charges should be laid as a result of the allegations is the job of a police investigation. The commission's role is to take a hard look at the processes that were followed when initial rape complaints were laid, amid claims of botched investi-gations or outright cover-ups. As Prime Minister Helen Clark noted, this can not be separated from the picture of a macho and sometimes sleazy police culture which has emerged. At the very least, group sex by officers with young vulnerable women occurred and was tolerated by senior officers. Whether it was consensual, as the officers claim, has yet to be determined. At the very least this was highly dubious behaviour but in the case of Clint Rickards, one of the stood-down senior officers, proved no impedi-ment to his promotion.

Both the police investigation and that of the commission of inquiry must be pursued with the utmost rigour. Those women who have chosen to come forward and relive their painful memories deserve nothing less. But it is also in the interest of those officers who are under suspicion that, if they are cleared, this is done through robust and transparent processes.

What the inquiries must avoid, however, is any perception that an open season has been declared on the police. They have a hard enough job, now made more difficult by public questioning of the past behaviour of some of their number. Officers should not have to fear that any past and frivolous allegation against them will be dragged up and given unwarranted credence.

The role of the commission of inquiry must not be confined to investigating the accusations or culture of the past. Robertson and Blazey must also put to the test claims that today's police do not work in a macho environment, intolerant of female officers or unresponsive to women's rape complaints. That will involve delving into such aspects of the police as recruitment, training and promotion policies. For the public to have full confidence in the police both the allegations of the past and today's police culture must be fully examined.