The Dominion Post
March 24, 2004
Confidence warning on PCA job
by Tracy Watkins
The Green Party has
refused to support the reappointment of Police Complaints Authority head Ian
Borrin, as fresh questions are raised about its independence.
Green MP Nandor Tanczos
yesterday called for a shakeup of the organisation as
wider unease over its role in probing historic rape allegations against senior
police surfaced. The Greens lodged their objection during what was expected to
be a rubber stamping of Judge Borrin's reappointment
by Parliament last night.
The reappointment was backed by the other political parties, but they also
warned of a "crisis of confidence" in the police force.
Mr Tanczos said the PCA needed a shakeup.
He referred to the "curiously contradictory" findings of two PCA
reports into the investigations by former Rotorua CIB head John Dewar of
historic sex allegations against fellow police.
Those allegations are now the subject of a commission of inquiry.
"The credibility of the Police Complaints Authority is under serious
threat. The simmering discontent at the role and function of the authority that
has been bubbling along in the public mind for a number of years has reached a
heat that cannot be ignored . . . we believe that something has to give,"
Mr Tanczos said.
The Government has introduced legislation appointing specially trained
investigators working independently of police on cases involving serious
allegations of police misconduct.
ACT MP Muriel Newman said New Zealanders needed to have confidence in the
police and the ability of the PCA to act independently. That should have been
the case when the allegations by Louise Nicholas against Assistant Commissioner
Clint Rickards and former police officers Brad Shipton and Bob Schollum were
first made. The men have denied the allegations.
National MP Brian Connell said the party supported Judge Borrin's
reappointment. But he warned that the PCA was viewed by many as "part of
the old boy network".