One News
August 13 2004
Police processes on trial
The commission of inquiry into
police conduct is looking at least a dozen complaints about the way police handled
allegations of sexual misconduct by their own officers.
At a hearing on Friday morning the
commission agonised over whether to hear the cases in
public.
A public meeting of the commission
of inquiry into police conduct is a rarity. It's only met for four days out of
a scheduled 34.
Sparked by allegations of police
rape by Rotorua woman Louise Nicholas and Kaitaia
woman Judith Garrett, if the commission decides to meet in secret, the public
may not get to hear about other cases.
"There are at least a dozen of
those that are completely unrelated to the Kaitaia
and Rotorua instances," says Kristy McDonald, the lawyer for police.
The commission still has to wade
through 200 police files, and wants to ensure any future court cases are fair.
The issue for this commission is if
it does not meet in private is there a real risk of any contamination of any
potential criminal process.
Both the complainants and the police
want the inquiry to be held in public, but the police union is asking for officers names to be automatically suppressed.
Media lawyers also oppose keeping
proceedings behind closed doors.
The press, their lawyers claim, must
be able to tell the public what's going on in the inquiry.
"Why should people be
restricted from saying to each other things which are true?" asks New
Zealand Herald Lawyer, Bruce Gray.
The commission has three months to report back to the government.