Commission of Inquiry Notable Successes

Police Graduation: Women top the Wing

Of the seventy-eight new constables who graduated from The Royal New Zealand Police College in Wing 257 on 25 June 2009, 16 were women. Their wing patron was the much loved and respected actor and broadcaster Dame Kate Harcourt. Dame Kate made mention of the fact that while women made up just 20 per cent of the wing, they won the four top prizes for academic and overall achievement during their training.

Key Achievements

In accordance with the recommendations of the Commission of Inquiry into Police Conduct (COI), the State Services Commission has almost completed the second phase of review. This second review builds on an initial review of change management effectiveness and human resources performance frameworks which was undertaken in 2007.

Key Achievements

Recommendation 2 – General Instructions Automatically Updated

"New Zealand Police should ensure that general instructions are automatically updated when a change is made to an existing policy"

Key Achievements

Recommendations 1 and 20 were completed this quarter.

Recommendation 1

"New Zealand Police (Police) should review and consolidate the numerous policies, instructions, and directives related to investigating complaints of misconduct against police officers, as well as those relating to the investigation of sexual assault allegations."

Key Achievements

Recommendation 51 – Organisational Health Audit

The 2010 Organisational Health Audit was conducted in March/April 2010 and the results were released to the Police executive on the 23rd June 2010. The survey is a measure of organisational climate, engagement and dimensions of safety for female staff and staff from minority groups.

Action Plans have been completed for each District and Services Centre. Action Plans will be monitored centrally.

Recommendations 14, 39 and 58 were completed in this quarter. This means 18 of the original 48 for which Police is responsible have yet to be completed.

Recommendation 14

"New Zealand Police should ensure that the practice of providing investigating officers with a reminder of the standards for complaint investigation is applied consistently throughout the country."

In June 2010, the Office of the Auditor General (OAG) released its Second Monitoring Report about how well Police are responding to the Commission of Inquiry (COI) recommendations¹. The OAG found that Police had fully implemented seven of the 47 recommendations and had made progress in implementing all of the remaining recommendations.

Key Achievements

In this quarter progress has been made in:

Police continue to build on the feedback provided in the second monitoring report of the Office of the Auditor General, (OAG), and the third monitoring report of State Services Commission. A team has been established within the Human Resource Group to co-ordinate and support this process.

Current work is focused on determining key measures for each work stream and the necessary processes to monitor progress towards high-level outcomes under each work stream.