Police behaviour under scrutiny

Capital's cops attract most complaints
13 December 2006

Wellington police had more complaints lodged against them than any other region in the country, the Police Complaints Authority's latest annual report shows.

During the year 1741 people made 2829 complaints about the police nationally. Of these, 2481 were accepted for investigation.

The highest number of complaints came from the Wellington police district, followed by Canterbury, Auckland City and North Shore/Waitakere/Rodney. Overall complaints dropped nationally by 161 since the last report after two years of increasing complaints.

Across all districts there were complaints for disgraceful conduct, treatment of children, perjury, and dishonesty. Police attitude and use of bad language attracted 336 complaints while use of physical force, failure to investigate and causing damage or loss when handling property all rated highly.

Matters that did not proceed to a full investigation were either withdrawn by the complainant or were matters where the authority did not have jurisdiction or used a statutory discretion not to investigate.

Since the last report, the Commission of Inquiry into Police Conduct has finished its hearings. Its report was being prepared for presentation on a date yet to be set.

- NZPA

I must admit I am not a fan of the Wellington Police.

3 weeks later and they've still not called about our car that got broken into. The last bit of advice was not to touch the car incase they wanted to take finger prints. After a few days of calling the number we were given and getting the same message "I'm sorry our operators are busy please call again later" we just decided to get the car fixed. To date no call.

We didn't even report our second incident where someone drive into our car during the night and didnt leave a note. We went straight to our insurance company and they processed it all without a police record number. Dont think they hold out much faith in the police either!