Stuff
March 6, 2004

Police commission of inquiry advertised this weekend
NZPA

Public notices calling for submissions and comment on the Commission of Inquiry into Police Conduct are to appear in newspapers this weekend.

The Government set up the commission to inquire into police conduct and procedure when receiving and investigating allegations of sexual assault made against members of the police or their associates.

Police standards and codes in relation to police personal behaviour including sexual conduct will be included in the inquiry, the Department of Internal Affairs, which is co-ordinating the setting up of the inquiry, said in a statement yesterday.

The Government announced last month that the inquiry would be carried out by High Court judge Justice Bruce Robertson and former senior public servant Dame Margaret Bazley.

It was set up following allegations by Rotorua woman Louise Nicholas that police assistant commissioner Clint Rickards, who has been stood down from his job as Auckland commander, and two former police officers – Brad Shipton and Bob Schollum – pack-raped her in a police house in Rotorua in the 1980s.

The three men strenuously deny the allegations.

Another woman, Judith Garrett, later claimed she had been raped by a Kaitaia police constable in 1988.

Internal Affairs said information on the commission and its terms of reference could be found at www.cipc.govt.nz.