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Focus on
Police Competence |
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Green Justice
Spokesperson Nandor Tanczos today said the wrong conviction, and subsequent
imprisonment, of three teenage girls showed up significant problems with the
conduct and practices of the New Zealand police. “While I am pleased
these girls have been freed, an apology has been given and compensation looks
like being paid, this event takes already low public confidence in police
procedures to a new level,” he said. Nandor said he was very
concerned by comments from the girls’ lawyer, Gary Gotlieb, that the police
had tunnel vision and often identified the supposed offender before looking
for evidence to prove it. “This is not an
isolated case. Past cases of serious miscarriage of justice, such as Arthur
Allen Thomas, has shown this to be a real problem. It also raises concern
over other cases where the verdict is disputed, such as the David Bain case,”
said Nandor. “The case of these
three girls highlights wider concerns over police profiling of supposed
offenders, and their use of stop and search powers to look for evidence of
offending. “This practice was
confirmed by Police Association president Greg O’Connor when he told the
Health Select Committee that police target people because of how they look,
and view their emergency search powers as an arbitrary power to stop and
search.” Nandor is attempting to
initiate an inquiry into police abuse of their search and seizure powers. Nandor said the shabby
police work that led to the conviction of the three girls was a real concern.
Justice Gault of the
Court of Appeal said that the wrongful conviction ‘raises questions of
conduct by the police which is a serious matter and must be properly
investigated’, while former police superintendent Bryan Rowe, whose
investigation led to the appeal, said that police oversights and blunders
bordered on ‘criminal offences’. Nandor said this case
is a question of more than apologies and compensation. While a Police
Complaints Authority investigation would be helpful, because the PCA only
looks at individual cases, a wide-ranging and independent investigation
should be conducted into seriously inadequate police investigation practice. Nandor is asking oral
question number five on this issue in Parliament this afternoon |
