Suspended cops cost $1m a year (oh and they want tasers permanently)

Alt Tv/Fleet FM Breakfast News Comment
Suspended cops cost $1m a year (oh and they want tasers permanently)
Police accused of crimes are costing taxpayers more than $1 million a year. New figures released to ONE News under the Official Information Act show New Zealanders are currently paying the wages of 20 police officers facing charges. Most are accused of assault or of drinking and driving. Criminologist Greg Newbold says that the police are like the Catholic Church, in that in the past a lot of child abuse within the church was ignored or swept under the carpet. "Likewise within the police, assaults and beating up of suspects went on. Everybody knew about it and everyone pretended it didn't happen," says Newbold. When we talk about needing an Independent Police Complaints authority and not the current system of cops investigating cops, the debate needs urgent attention now as Police want to have Tasers as a permanent part of their arsenal, after their so called ‘year trial’ a trial during which the cops were caught out lying about Taser cock ups by their police officers, and during a year when pepper spray and police dogs were all found to have been used improperly. I don’t care if cops want laser guns – BUT GIVE US A PLACE TO COMPLAIN THAT IS INDEPENDENT AND TRANSPERANT- if abd when the cops go over the line, asking for the basic checks and balances over our Police force that any democracy needs seems an impossible task in the rednecked pro police at any cost media environment we live in.