New Zealand Police
The New Zealand Police is the national police force of New Zealand, responsible for enforcing criminal and traffic law, enhancing public safety, maintaining order and keeping the peace throughout the country.
Origins and History
The New Zealand Constabulary was established in 1840 along the lines of similar constabularies that existed in Britain at that time. The constabulary was initially part police and part militia. It was known as the New Zealand Armed Constabulary from 1867 and took part in land wars against Maori opposed to colonial expansion at that time.
The New Zealand Police Force was established as a national force under the Police Act of 1886. In 1958, the word Force was removed from the name when legislation was revised.
During the 1981 Springboks tour, the Police formed two riot squads known as Red Squad and Blue Squad to control anti-apartheid protesters who laid siege to rugby fields where the touring team was playing.
In July 1985, the New Zealand Police arrested two French Security Service operatives after the Rainbow Warrior was bombed and sunk in Auckland harbour. The rapid arrest was attributed to the high level of public support for the investigation.
A member of the New Zealand Police, Sergeant Stewart Graeme Guthrie, was the last civilian recipient of the George Cross, which is awarded for conspicuous gallantry. He fired a warning shot near a gunman at Aramoana on November 13, 1990, but was killed by a return shot from the gunman, who also killed twelve others.
On 1 July 1992, the Traffic Safety Service of the Ministry of Transport was merged with the Police. Up until that time, the Ministry of Transport and local councils had been responsible for traffic law enforcement. In 2001, the Police re-established a specialist road policing branch known as the Highway Patrol. Today the Police is responsible for enforcing traffic law, while local councils enforce parking regulations.
More recently, the New Zealand Police has been involved in peacekeeping missions to East Timor and the Solomon Islands, to assist these countries with establishing law and order after civil wars. They have also been involved in Community Police training in Bougainville, in conjunction with Australian Federal Police.
Arms
New Zealand Police officers do not normally bear firearms while on patrol, but routinely carry Oleoresin capsicum (pepper) spray and batons. Many police patrol cars do now carry a firearm in a secure container. The presence of armed police at an incident is often considered a newsworthy event by the media.
In 1964, the Armed Offenders Squad was created to provide a specialist armed response unit. The AOS is roughly analogous to SWAT in the United States, and is called out as required for various emergency situations, such as hostage-takings or apprehension of armed criminals.
In addition to the AOS, the New Zealand Police maintain a unit known as the Special Tactics Group. The STG, similar to the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team, is the last line of law enforcement response available before a police incident controller calls in the special forces - in New Zealand, the Special Air Service act as the military's counter-terrorism force. Because they train with the SAS, the STG are skilled at dynamic entry and other tactics that can make the difference in preventing a high-risk situation from resulting in the death of a police officer.
Even if the incident controller calls in the SAS, an armed incident remains the jurisdiction of the New Zealand Police, with the IC having go/no-go control over the regiment's response team. The incident at Aramoana saw the Police request mobilisation of the SAS, but the incident was successfully resolved before they were actually responded.
Organisation
Although headed by a Commissioner, the New Zealand Police is a decentralised organisation divided into twelve districts, each with a geographical area of responsibility, several service centres that each provide a range of core nationwide services in their specialty areas, and an Office of the Commissioner that provides policy and planning advice as well as national oversight and management of the organisation.
District Commanders hold the rank of Superintendent. Service Centre Managers may be sworn or non-sworn, depending on speciality.
The New Zealand Police is a member of Interpol and has close relationships with the Australian police forces, at both the state and federal level. Several New Zealand Police representatives are posted overseas in key New Zealand diplomatic missions.
Staff
While sworn officers make up the majority of the workforce, non-sworn staff and volunteers provide a wide range of support services where a sworn officer's statutory powers are not required.
Ranks
Rank insignia is worn on the epaulettes. Officers of Inspector rank and higher are commissioned by the Governor General, but are still promotions from the ranks of non-commissioned officers.
- Recruit - word "RECRUIT" below police number
- Constable - police number
- Senior Constable - one white point-up chevron above police number
- Sergeant - three white point-up chevrons above police number
- Senior Sergeant - white crown between two ferns above police number
- Inspector - three silver stars ("pips")
- Superintendent - one silver star below a crown
- Assistant Commissioner - three silver pips in a triangle below a crown
- Deputy Commissioner - silver crossed sword and baton below one star
- Commissioner - silver crossed sword and baton below a crown
Accountabilities
While the New Zealand Police is technically a government department and has political representation in Government through the Minister of Police, the Commissioner and all sworn members swear allegiance directly to the Sovereign and, by constitutional convention, have constabulary independence from the government of the day.
Annual reporting
The New Zealand Police publishes an annual report for each financial year of operation ending 30 June each year, reporting both financial and non-financial achievements. It also publishes a Statement of Intent, in conjunction with the Budget, that outlines the budget for the forthcoming year as well as perfomance measures and objectives.
Crime statistics
In addition to the annual report, the Police also publishes six-monthly statistical summaries of crime for both New Zealand as a whole and each Police District. In early 2005, queryable crime statistics for both Recorded Crime and Recorded Apprehensions for the last 10 years were published on the Statistics New Zealand website ([1]). These statistics provide offence statistics down to individual sections of legislation and appear to be the most detailed national crime statistics available today.
Recent controversies
The New Zealand Police is considered one of the least corrupt police forces in the world. Despite this, there have been a number of recent controversies that have put the Police under close scrutiny. While the Police Complaints Authority is an independent body that investigates complaints against the New Zealand Police, the following events have either fallen outside the authority's ambit or received significant publicity.
CARD and INCIS projects
In 1998, a Parliamentary Select Committee inquiry severely criticised the CARD (Communications Centres) and INCIS (computerisation) projects for mismanagement. A number of its recommendations were again put forward in the 2005 Independent Review of the Police Communications Centres.
Police Commissioner Doone's resignation
In 2000, Police Commissioner Peter Doone resigned after being severely criticised for interfering in the traffic stop of a vehicle which his future wife was driving and in which he was a passenger. He subsequently sued a Sunday newspaper for defamation concerning statements he allegedly made. In May 2005, the Doones switched the defamation case to the Prime Minister, Helen Clark, when the paper disclosed that she had confirmed their information.
Historic sexual misconduct
In 2004, a number of historic sexual misconduct allegations dating from the 1980s were made against both serving and former police officers. Several senior officers were stood down. A commission of enquiry was convened but has made little progress to date due to formal charges being laid in several cases. In May 2005, the commission of enquiry was restructured to investigate only those cases where charges had not been laid.
Communications Centres performance
In 2004 and 2005, the police have been criticised over several incidents in which callers to the Police Communications Centres, particularly those using the 111 emergency telephone number, are alleged to have received inadequate responses.
- March 2004: Police were dispatched in Taupo after a call reported a man dying in an attack in Christchurch.
- October 2004: Iraena Asher called 111 from Piha, expressing fears for her safety. Although a patrol car was available, police dispatched a taxi to pick her up. The taxi was dispatched to the wrong street in Onehunga and Asher later disappeared, despite being assisted by local Piha residents.
- October 23, 2004: A Te Puke woman rang 111 while hiding in bushes outside her rural home, while armed intruders beat up her husband. Police kept her on the phone for over an hour before help arrived, preventing her from ringing neighbours for help. Police stated that this was standard operating procedure and that it was too dangerous to involve more civilians in an armed incident and risk further injuries or deaths.
- November 2004: A Wanganui man, Daniel Gray, rang 111 after being assaulted and having his jaw broken. He was told that the street he was calling from did not exist, and to ring back later. The people who assaulted him killed another man shortly afterwards.
- January 14, 2005: A Plimmerton woman who called 111 to report two distressed swimmers was put in contact with an operator who did not know where Plimmerton was. Two other calls at the same time, reporting the same incident, were answered correctly and emergency services were dispatched. It appeared that the third call overloaded the system.
- January 27, 2005: A Hamilton woman who called 111 after a sex attack was asked to walk 700 metres to the nearest police station to make a statement.
- March 13, 2005: A driver made five 111 calls to report a drunk driver whom he followed from Coromandel to Auckland, but police failed to follow up on the calls.
- March 15, 2005: After a 111 call from a Dargaville farm, police asked another farmer living 12 km away to check whether the call was genuine.
- April 2, 2005: A call about a fight in Christchurch was not passed on to police patrols. Ninety minutes later a second fight in the same area resulted in grievous injury.
In October 2004, under sustained political scrutiny for these apparent systemic problems in the Communications Centres, and after the Iraena Asher incident received a lot of publicity and a whistleblowing employee resigned, the Commissioner of Police ordered an Independent Review into the Communications Centres.
On May 11, 2005, the Review Panel released a report into the service that the Commissioner described as provocative, and others called "damning" ([2]). It criticised the service for systemic failures and inadequate management, and expressed ongoing concerns for public safety. Despite the damning nature of the report, neither Police Commissioner Rob Robinson nor Minister of Police George Hawkins offered to resign ([3], [4]). With over sixty recommendations to act upon, the Commissioner immediately established as Implementation Board, with community representation, to oversee the operation of the Communications Centres and address the problems identified.
Pornographic e-mails
In November 2004, the Police I & T section secretly cloned the Police e-mail system and subjected it to forensic analysis. Over 300 employees were found to have what were considered "inappropriate" e-mail images, many sexually explicit. Many were subjected to internal disciplinary procedures and counselling. Several faced criminal charges for pornography. The Police Commissioner was politically criticised for being too soft with his staff, despite initiating the investigation and proactively making the findings of the investigation public before employees were even confronted and questioned about the e-mails concerned. This investigation is said to have prompted further investigations amongst other government agencies.
Police culture
After a Police sergeant was found guilty in 2005 of charges of assault and prisoner abuse in an South Auckland police station, there were claims that the practices were endemic in the Police. Strange dark humour photographs surfaced. An investigation into "Police Culture" was launched. It reported back on 10 October 2005 that while the Emergency Response Group at Counties-Manukau (since disbanded) used excessive force and took inappropriate and degrading photographs of people in custody, there was no nationwide problem with police culture. (Stuff)
Cooked statistics
Following reductions in recorded crime in 2004 combined with increases in resolved offences, suggestions were made by both politicians, and some police officers, that statistics were being "cooked" or unethically reported and resolved by the Police, especially with the use of "custody clearances" for already convicted offenders ([5], [6]). The Police and the Police Minister have refuted these allegations ([7]), stating that the clearances concerned make up only 0.9% of all cleared crime and have been used consistently for many years.