Manawatu Standard
March 23, 2004

Policing the police is no easy task
Editorial

If there is one good thing that might come out of the commission of inquiry about to begin work into police rape allegations, it is that the Police Complaints Authority may get sharper and more effective teeth.

Legislation to reform the authority is on hold until the commission reports back to the Government, and is scheduled to happen in November. As it presently configured, the Independent Police Complaints Authority Bill would increase membership of the authority from one to three, with the chairperson a retired judge. In the meantime, the appointment of four independent investigators has improved its ability to investigate complaints, which at last count were coming in at a rate of about 45 a week, or nearly 3000 a year.

The fallout from recent 18-year-old claims of pack rape have done the police much damage as the "no smoke without fire" syndrome has taken firm hold in the public mind. No-one can be sure yet where the commission's inquiry will lead or what it might find.

So it would be premature and quite destructive of notions of natural justice to make pronouncements as to the merits of anyone's case. But what can be said at this stage is that confidence, being the fragile thing that it is, is seriously at threat because of the melee of claims which have been flying about. So the sooner it is restored, the better.

It may well be that there are structural things within the police force which need fixing, and indeed it is part of the commission's brief to inquire into such matters as police standards and codes in relation to personal behaviour and sexual conduct. There has been much talk of a corrosive police "culture" which has influenced how people behaved – and one way or another still does, of course. And there have been the seemingly-inevitable allegations of a "cone of silence" descending when it comes to the police policing themselves, a closing of the ranks. The other side of the coin is the contention is that there is nobody harder on the police than the police themselves because they understand how the system works and they don't want the organisation for which they work damaged by the behaviour of a few miscreants.

Our police have a worldwide reputation for not being corrupt, and reputation, like confidence, is to be jealously guarded. But given recently-revealed events, the question has to be asked whether the complaints authority will ever have enough money to be a truly independent body, and if this is not to be the case, what that might mean for the future credibility of the force. The politicians are promising a "fair and robust" complaints process, but the public will have to suspend judgement on that, it seems, at least until the commission finishes its work. The issues which surely go to the heart of the matter include whether we expect our police to be somehow different from the rest of society, how realistic such expectations might be, and what checks and balances are in place to ensure the power they hold is not unbridled.

One more thing: Sunday mornings down Otaki way won't be the same again for a while after last weekend's war games shattered the early peace. But the Army, to its credit, says it is going to front up at a Neighbourhood Watch meeting and apologise for what happened. With due respect to the territorials' enthusiasm, this is not the kind of training exercise likely to cement civilian-Army relations.