Report of the New Zealand Police
for the year ended 30 June 2004
Presented to the House of Representatives pursuant to section 34A of the Public Finance Act 1989 Police Oath
Commissioner's overview
Introduction
The 2003/04 financial year has been a busy one for New Zealand Police, with districts making
encouraging progress in reducing crime and crashes and improving community safety.
Operational activities
This financial year has seen the recorded crime rate
continue the downward trend of the past decade,
coupled with the best resolution rate for overall
recorded crime in recent history.
Given the complex interplay of pressures and influences
that characterise law enforcement, I'm very pleased with
these results - principally because they indicate that
fewer people have been subjected to the trauma of
becoming victims of crime.
However areas of concern remain and we are continuing to
direct interventions and additional resources at key crime
issues, such as family violence and misuse of alcohol and
other drugs (including methamphetamine).
Planning began this financial year for four new Family
Safety Teams - a joint initiative with Child, Youth and
Family and the Ministry of Justice that we hope will prevent
and reduce family violence. We are also looking to
strengthen our response to alcohol-related crime
and crashes, through both proactive and
reactive strategies. Examples include moves
to strengthen the collection of 'last drink'
data, as part of an ambitious Enhanced
Alcohol Intelligence Project, and the
development of a best practice
training manual for specialist Police
liquor licensing officers. More
resources are also going into the
intelligence, investigation and analysis
aspects of clandestine drug-making
laboratories, including greater investment
in 'upstream' work to prevent the
diversion of precursor chemicals
that are used to illicitly
manufacture
methamphetamine.
Other areas of concern
and intervention
include burglary,
vehicle crime,
organised crime and
violence that occurs
outside the
domestic setting.
The year was marked by the sad death of Featherston
six-year-old Coral-Ellen Burrows in September.
A large Police operation was launched to find the little
girl and put her killer before the courts. Stepfather
Steven Williams pleaded guilty to her murder in
December. The crime profoundly affected not only
Coral-Ellen's family, but also the wider community and
the Police officers involved in the inquiry.
Once again, DNA evidence provided the critical evidence
needed to solve an historic murder. Jarrod Mangels
pleaded guilty in February this year to murdering
Maureen McKinnel in Arrowtown in 1987. The routine
sample obtained from Mangels by an alert constable on
an unrelated matter enabled this outcome.
February also saw Police staff in the Hutt Valley,
Manawatu and Rangitikei heavily involved in helping
communities affected by severe flooding.
A major operation against cannabis growers and
suppliers carried out between November and April
resulted in 619 people being arrested on a range of
charges and an estimated 115,000 plants and 92
kilograms of dry cannabis plant material recovered and
destroyed. Seven clandestine laboratories were also
detected along with 71 grams of methamphetamine.
The range of charges faced by the offenders clearly
illustrated that people involved in one line of drugs are
also operating in others either as growers and
manufacturers or as suppliers and distributors.
In March, two Israeli men - Eli Cara and Urie Kelman -
were arrested following an operation that was launched
when an Internal Affairs officer became suspicious about
a passport application. The two men were charged with
attempting to fraudulently obtain a passport and were
jailed for six months.
Police played a significant role in maintaining public
safety and order during the hikoi to Parliament
protesting the Government's foreshore and seabed
proposals in May. Police iwi liaison officers accompanied
the separate hikoi as they made their way from
Whangarei and the East Coast to Wellington.
The trust and confidence the marchers had in these
officers meant they were able to tread the line between
protecting the right to protest and making sure towns
and cities along the route weren't brought to a halt as
the hikoi went through. They were also able to dispel
the tensions that could have flared when thousands of
people gathered at Parliament.
In June, New Zealand and Fijian Police jointly busted
what's thought to be one of the Southern Hemisphere's
largest clandestine methamphetamine laboratories. The
lab, on the outskirts of Suva, was capable of producing
up to 500kg of the illicit drug each week. The product
was destined for markets in New Zealand, Australia,
Europe and the USA.
New Zealand Police had been involved in the year-long
operation leading up to the bust and helped with the
clean-up afterwards. Our knowledge of this drug was
invaluable to the Fijians and demonstrated the hands-on
role we are playing in building capability and lending
expertise to our South Pacific neighbours. This assistance
is of direct benefit to them and also helps protect New
Zealand itself.
Internal developments in the operational policing area this
year have included the implementation of a revised pursuits
policy. The new policy has been designed to maximise the
safety of the public and Police staff when drivers refuse to
stop when requested and drive off at speed.
It emphasises safety over immediate apprehension of
the offender, assessment of the risks during a pursuit,
clear lines of authority in the event of a pursuit,
supervision by communications centres and revised
abandonment procedures.
Pursuits are one of a number of situations where Police
are required to make well-judged decisions and I believe
the new policy provides a framework for this to take
place. Allied to this is the new Professional Police Driver
Programme that will be introduced in the new year.
In May, we launched an enhancement to the AFIS
fingerprint database that enables computer matches of
palm prints left at crime scenes.
Around 280,000 palm prints were transferred onto the
electronic database and are now available for matching.
The new facility was immediately successful, enabling
several historic crimes to be solved.
We expect this facility will increase the total number of
AFIS identifications from 7,000 to 10,000 a year.
Road policing enforcement continues to concentrate on
the three big killers - speed, alcohol and failure to wear
restraints.
Although the road toll has been steadily declining over
the past 10 years, last year saw a disappointing increase
in fatalities. There were 461 road deaths in the calendar
year 2003 compared to 404 in 2002.
In April anywhere, anytime speed cameras were
introduced. The cameras are now deployed in
consultation with community road safety partners to
target the areas of highest risk. The numbers of speed
camera tickets issued dropped sharply in the following
months indicating a pleasing increase in compliance
with speed limits.
National security and regional policing
National security and regional policing activities
continued to be an important focus for New Zealand
Police during the year.
In August, we marked the 25th anniversary of the New
Zealand Police liaison post in Bangkok. The office was
opened in 1978 as a result of the Mr Asia affair and to
deal with heroin coming out of the Golden Triangle of
Thailand, Myanmar and Laos.
In March, Exercise Lawman 2004 saw New Zealand's
counter-terrorist infrastructure mobilised over a 72-hour
period with the aim of practising the skills needed to
deal with a terrorist crisis in New Zealand.
New Zealand Police took the lead in organising the
exercise, which was deemed a great success. Other
agencies to take part included the New Zealand Defence
Force, the Security Intelligence Service, the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs and Trade, New Zealand Customs and
the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet.
In June, the Government announced that our counterterrorism
capacity will be further boosted during
2004/05 by the formation of dedicated national security
teams. Over the next four years, an additional 35 Police
staff will be deployed for specific national security
duties.
A South and West Pacific Police liaison post in Suva will
be established in 2004/05 to complement the work
already being done at posts in Washington DC, London,
Jakarta, Bangkok, Sydney and Canberra.
The Suva post also reflects the increasing involvement of
Police in regional commitments in the Solomon Islands,
Bougainville and the Pacific Regional Policing Initiative.
The Solomon Islands in particular represented a major
commitment for us this year, with 35 staff deployed
there on rotation as part of RAMSI - the Regional
Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands.
When I visited our contingent in October, I observed
that the deployment has been extremely successful and
our staff are very well regarded for their professionalism,
competence and the valuable work they are doing. We
will continue to make a contribution to maintaining law
and order and building the capacity of the Royal
Solomon Islands Police for some time to come.
New legislation
Two legislative changes introduced during the year
provided Police with additional and welcome powers to
combat crime.
The Crimes Amendment Act, which came into force in
October, brought the most significant changes to
property-related crimes since the Crimes Act was
enacted in 1961.
Increasingly Police are receiving complaints involving the
use of computers to commit property-related crimes,
and the amendments enabled a more effective response
to these complaints.
A new series of computer-related crimes were created to
cover activities like hacking, while important changes
were also made to Police interception powers,
expanding the coverage and nature of warrants in the
fight against organised crime.
Changes introduced under the Criminal Investigations
(Bodily Samples) Amendment Act also in October gave
us even greater scope for detecting and resolving crime.
The inclusion of burglary and entering with intent as
offences for which compulsory samples can be taken
enable us to better target recidivist and convicted
offenders.
Burglary is a serious crime. It is often a precursor to
violent and sexual offending and the extra DNA powers
help us to detect and apprehend offenders at an earlier
point in their criminal development.
Compulsory testing for databank purposes was also
extended to serious offenders convicted prior to the
introduction of DNA testing who are still in jail.
Many of the country's worst offenders who are currently
imprisoned will now have their DNA included in the
database. This may help us to resolve some more
unsolved crimes.
Organisational developments
At an organisational level, we are also making good
progress.
It's pleasing to see that our staffing levels are right up to
strength for the first time in several years, including
meeting our targets in Auckland thanks to the UK
officers who came on board last year and strong local
recruiting interest.
While demands for policing service will always be
greater than the service available, the considerable
pressures on staff in the Auckland Districts are now
more manageable.
We began addressing shortfalls in staffing the
Communication Centres in Auckland, Wellington and
Christchurch caused by increasing call volume. We will
increase staffing by a further 18 in the 2004/05 year.
Investment in infrastructure has allowed us to embark
on a planned programme of renovation and
replacement for our older Police buildings. Work was
carried out on 11 projects this year, while planning and
design got under way for a further nine projects that
will be completed in successive financial years.
In the Information and Technology area two major
projects have been undertaken which will be ongoing in
the 2004/05 year. The computer infrastructure
replacement project has seen the upgrading of aging
equipment across the organisation. The programme has
completed the development of Windows XP based
installations for all computer types and a new model of
station server. To date 3,600 new computers have been
installed including over 200 station servers. This
replacement programme will provide Police users with a
more reliable platform and access to modern computing
applications that were previously unable to be
supported, and that will allow for growth and future
needs. There has also been the phased removal of the
aging computer functionality from LES (Wanganui) to
the National Intelligence Application (NIA) which has
included firearms licensing, property, and criminal and
traffic histories.
An increased capital roll out programme starting this
financial year has seen a doubling of annual capital
expenditure on the vehicle fleet and a move toward a
replacement regime for standard vehicles of three years /
80,000km.
I was very pleased with this year's wage round
negotiations. We've achieved a fair and good settlement
for all parties, we have a term that gives us stability for
the next three years and certainty has been created
around key employment relations issues.
Our focus on crime and crash reduction was sharpened
during the year with two new Assistant Commissioner
positions being filled. Howard Broad has assumed
responsibility for Planning, Development and
Deployment while Peter Marshall took up the Crime
Reduction and Public Safety portfolio.
Meanwhile, District and Area Commanders have
received training in intelligence-led policing and crime
and crash reduction. I believe we will reap significant
benefits from this investment in capability building in
the months and years to come.
The year was however marred by allegations of sexual
misconduct.
In February, the Government established a Commission
of Inquiry into Police conduct to consider past allegations
of sexual offending and the Police response to those
allegations. Parallel criminal investigations also got under
way in relation to some of the historical allegations.
While I regret that the Commission of Inquiry was
necessary, I believe it is appropriate to the
circumstances. New Zealand Police values accountability
and we are cooperating fully with the Inquiry process in
an open and transparent manner.
External review, observations and recommendations
about how we can improve our processes and
procedures will provide a base for ongoing improvement.
Criminal or unethical behaviour will not be tolerated in
the New Zealand Police of today and where this is
uncovered, it will be addressed.
The known allegations are against a small number of
individuals. The overwhelming majority of Police have
and will continue to serve the community with integrity.
I would not like the Inquiry to overshadow the good
work that staff do every day throughout the country.
Conclusion
I would like to take this opportunity to thank New
Zealand Police staff for their professionalism in what has
at times been a difficult and demanding environment.
The results in terms of crime and crash reduction are
very encouraging and I'm grateful that staff have not
allowed themselves to be distracted from providing a
quality policing service to the New Zealand community.
Rob Robinson
COMMISSIONER OF POLICE
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Table of contents
Commissioner's Overview
Outcome Report
Police's 3-5 Year Outcome Priorities
Police Outcome: Reduce Violence
Police Outcome: Reduce Burglary
Police Outcome: Reduce Vehicle Crime
Police Outcome: Reduce Organised Criminal Activity
Police Outcome: Increase National Security
Police Outcome: Enhance Road Safety
Reducing Inequalities
Overview
Key Intervention: Responsiveness to At Risk Families
Key Intervention: Drugs and Alcohol
Key Intervention: Responsiveness to Young People
Key Intervention: Mäori Responsiveness
Key Intervention: Pacific Peoples Responsiveness
EEO and Diversity
Capability
Capability Development
Resource Deployment
Management of Key Risks
Statement of Objectives and Service Performance
Statement of Responsibility
Output Class One - Policy Advice and Ministerial Servicing
Output Class Two - General Crime Prevention Services
Output Class Three - Specific Crime Prevention Service
and Maintenance of Public Order
Output Class Four - Police Primary Response Management
Output Class Five - Investigations
Output Class Six - Case Resolution and Support to Judicial Process
Output Class Seven - Road Safety Programme
Financial Statements
Additional Financial Information
Information Required by Statute
Organisational Information
Statistical Information
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