Police Conduct Association founder Shannon Parker says the move to bring in an Inspector-General is a knee-jerk reaction. Photo: RNZ / Cole Eastham-Farrelly
An advocate supporting people with complaints about police misconduct says bringing in an Inspector-General is a knee-jerk reaction that may not make much difference.
The government revealed on Tuesday it plans to set up an Inspector-General of Police as part of the Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA), which will be expanded to become an Inspectorate, with additional resourcing and powers.
The National Integrity Unit in Police has also been bolstered with six additional investigators, and a lawyer has been tasked with investigating current police employees involved.
The moves are a response to the damning IPCA report into the failures of police leadership to investigate or follow up complaints of sexual offending by McSkimming.
The complaints are thought to have been made by a woman 20 years younger than McSkimming, who he had an affair with.
The founder of the Police Conduct Association, Shannon Parker, told Nine to Noon host Kathryn Ryan she set up the NGO after her own difficulties making a complaint about police.
"I found the process very difficult, and basically didn't know what I was doing, and I felt that many people would have the same problem," she said.
Jevon McSkimming. Photo: RNZ / Mark Papalii
She said the move to bring in an Inspector-General was a knee-jerk reaction and several avenues for investigating police conduct already existed: the IPCA; the Police Professional Conduct Group inside police; and the National Integrity Unit also within police.
"In my mind, all [were] set up for the purpose of protecting the police reputation as opposed to protecting victims of police conduct ... I can't see how an Inspector-General of Police is going to make any difference if you put that person sitting at the IPCA."
She said the IPCA had admitted there were times it could have stepped in sooner or done more to prevent the McSkimming scandal, and an Inspector-General would only know what they had been notified of.
"If someone's instructed not to forward an email on, not to notify someone, how is it going to have made any difference? ... he only knows what he knows. He only knows what he's notified of.
"What's the difference between that and any other avenue they already have for communicating anonymously?
"I think it's another thing that's going to cost a lot of money that is not going to offer the victims or complainants of police misconduct any value."
She said the internal groups like the Professional Conduct Group sometimes referred complaints back to the police district the complaint originated from - and whether they were acted on often depended on "how much that person is willing to do".
The problem with the McSkimming case was the correct processes were not followed, and Parker questioned whether having an Inspector-General would affect that.
The same was true of the idea of setting up an anonymous portal for complaints.
"We've got whistleblowers process, anyone can set up an anonymous email ... they could have gone to CrimeStoppers, again that's anonymous.
"I'm not saying that they should have to, or that that should be what they should have done - but I'm saying there's already ways and means of doing that."
Public Services Minister Judith Collins speaks after a damning report into police conduct, with Police Commissioner Richard Chambers in the background. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
More resources for IPCA a 'great next step'
Parker said the IPCA only investigated a small portion of the complaints they received, with many instead being sent back for police to investigate themselves.
More detailed investigations by the IPCA were typically only undertaken for very serious cases like police shootings, fatal pursuits, and sexual offending, she said.
"Other than that, they are usually left with the police."
She said some complaints were only successfully raised because the complainants had "pushed and pushed" and asked further questions.
"The bulk of those, if I'm honest, have actually only been taken seriously or relooked at after we have gone to the media and it's got - or about to get - public attention. And that concerns me. That shouldn't have to happen.
"It makes me wonder how many people just give up at the starting gate ... because it's too stressful, it's too hard, or they just don't know what to do next."
Another difficulty with the IPCA was any complaint made would automatically be notified to the police.
Greater powers for the IPCA would be "a great idea and would be a great next step", she said, but the priority was more resourcing.
"They are very limited in what they can do, and I do understand that ... but I think they definitely need greater resourcing.
"In some cases I know that they would like to take things further and they just can't - but not having the time and the resources to be able to go through these with a finer-toothed comb definitely has a big impact."
She said complainants sometimes filed "incredibly long" complaints with irrelevant details that could take up police and IPCA time, and which may be exacerbating problems with ignored or lost complaints.
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