Notes on a Scandal: The Official Enquiry Into Deviance and Corruption in New Zealand Police
| Author | Michael Rowe |
| Date | 01 April 2009 |
| Published date | 01 April 2009 |
| DOI | 10.1375/acri.42.1.123 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
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THE AUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND JOURNAL OF CRIMINOLOGY
VOLUME 42 NUMBER 1 2009 PP. 123–138
Address for correspondence: Michael Rowe, Institute of Criminiology Victoria University,
Wellington, New Zealand. E-mail: michael.rowe@vuw.ac.nz
Notes on a Scandal: The Official Enquiry
Into Deviance and Corruption in
New Zealand Police
Michael Rowe
Victoria University, New Zealand
Since 2004, the New Zealand Police Service has been engulfed by a
series of scandals relating to allegations that officers have committed
rape and sexual assault and conducted inappropriate sexual relations with
vulnerable people. Moreover, it has been claimed that other officers
engaged in corrupt practices to thwart the investigation and prosecution
of criminal behaviour of police officers. In 2007, a Commission of Inquiry
report established a program of reform intended to shape the future
direction of the police service.This ar ticle provides an overview of these
scandals, the context in which they have emerged, and the political and
policing response to them. The analysis contained in the Commission
report is compared with that offered by comparable investigations of
police deviance and corruption in other countries. The methodological
and conceptual limitations of the Commission are outlined and the
prospects of the recommendations are considered.
Keywords: corruption, police reform, deviance, misconduct, ethics
As with their counterparts in many other societies, the New Zealand (NZ) police
service has tended to enjoy a positive public/self-image for much of the last 50 years.
While a catalogue of scandals and public concerns about policing in NZ certainly
exists, it tends to be relatively small and to contain incidents relating to specific polic-
ing operations (such as claims of mishandling protests against a rugby tour made by
the apartheid-era Springboks side in 1981 [Chief Ombudsman, 1983]) or to incompe-
tence in the investigation of particular crimes (Lewis, 1998). The role of the police
service in the colonial suppression of Ma
–
ori communities has also been politically
controversial, but much less so than debates about the policing of Aboriginal peoples
in Australia (Cunneen, 2001; Hill, 1986). However, in 2007, considerable contro-
versy followed police operations against alleged extremist environmental and Ma
–
ori
groups, the Tuhoe tribe in particular, which were conducted against a discourse of the
threat of ‘terror’ that shapes criminal justice and security activities in many parts of
the world (Keenan, 2008; King & Sharp, 2006).
Loader and Mulcahy (2003) argued that policing has been a ‘cultural lens’
through which the imagined community of English society has been formed and
reformed. To change the metaphor only slightly, policing in NZ has often served as a
soft focus mirror, reflecting a particularly benevolent image of society (Glynn,
1975). Although this perception might be distorted, and not reflect the concerns
and controversies that surround police interaction with some sections of the
community, the image of the NZ police has tended to be a positive one. Pratt (1992)
argued that the justice system in NZ developed in relation to efforts to create a
‘Britain of the South Pacific’ in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Just as the
police have played an important symbolic role in terms of English national identity,
the NZ police have tended to be portrayed as the embodiment of the ‘perfect
society’ (Pratt, 1992).
The high level of legitimacy afforded to the NZ police made the allegations of
sexual violence that emerged in 2004 especially dramatic. The impact that the
scandals outlined in this article has had on public confidence in the police service has
yet to be properly measured, but the huge discrepancy between prevailing public
discourse surrounding the police service and the sordid and corrupt practices exposed
by the media has generated wider concerns about the effectiveness and future direc-
tion of policing in NZ. As is outlined in more detail later in this article, these particu-
lar scandals became elevated into ‘signal events’ around which wider concerns about
policing and law and order coalesced. During the period in which these scandals have
emerged, a review of the 1958 Police Act, which provides the legislative framework for
fundamental police powers, discipline and accountability, has entailed considerable
public consultation and has served to keep many issues raised by the scandals on the
media and political agenda. The domestic politics of law and order, against which a
coalition government faced elections in 2008, has also meant that police integrity,
and police service strength, have been salient topics during the period in which
allegations of sexual misconduct, rape and corruption have unfolded.
After outlining the nature of these controversies, the article analyses the estab-
lishment, procedures and findings of the Commission of Inquiry into Police Conduct
and draws upon other official enquiries into policing, including police corruption in
many U.S. cities in the 1960s and 1970s, the Royal Commission into New South
Wales Police Service (commonly referred to as the Wood Commission), and the
Stephen Lawrence Inquiry (known synonymously as the Macpherson Report) in the
United Kingdom (UK). Finally, the conclusion of the article considers the prospects
of the Commission of Inquiry into Police Conduct for engendering significant
reform in relation to NZ Police.
Rape and Cover-Up in NZ Police
In January 2004, the front page of the Dominion Post newspaper reported claims that
three police officers had raped a teenage girl while serving at Rotorua police station
in the North Island of NZ. The attacks were said to have occurred 18 years earlier
and the reports were largely based on claims made by one of the victims, Louise
Nicholas. In addition, the report claimed that when the victim of these assaults
reported her experiences to the police, the officer concerned failed to initiate a
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MICHAEL ROWE
THE AUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND JOURNAL OF CRIMINOLOGY
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