NZ Police 'watch dog' really a police lapdog

Shamed cop given plum London job
A senior policeman was rewarded with a prestigious posting to London, despite a secret report saying he acted unlawfully and totally mismanaged a complaint about the unlawful arrest of a justice of the peace.

Superintendent Gary Smith was one of several officers criticised by the Independent Police Conduct Authority. But 11 months after the findings, he was appointed as the police liaison officer to Britain.

The wrongly arrested Tokoroa JP, Mii Teokotai, lost her job as a result of the botched police investigation. She was charged with conspiracy to commit arson but the charge was later dismissed for lack of evidence.

The IPCA report also criticised current Southern district commander Bob Burns and former Bay of Plenty police professional standards head Garth Bryan, since appointed to a senior job at police national headquarters.

The Dominion Post has a copy of the secret September 2009 IPCA report into a string of complaints laid by former policeman Dave White about the 2005 arrest of Mrs Teokotai, his mother-in-law.

The IPCA did not make public its findings because the authority deemed them not of sufficient public interest. It found:

The Independent (and I use that word as broadly as I possibly can) Police Conduct Authority explained that they didn't release details concerning Police abusing their powers to try and weakly frame an innocent woman for arson because the Independent (and I use that word as broadly as I possibly can) Police Conduct Authority didn't think there was sufficient public interest?

A clear cut case of Police abusing their powers and Police Bosses turning a blind eye to that abuse who then go on to be awarded top over seas liaison roles isn't deemed to breach the sufficient public interest threshold set by the Independent (and I use that word as broadly as I possibly can) Police Conduct Authority? What on earth would the Police need to do to breach that threshold, start posting all their planted evidence cases up on You Tube with a direct link to the Independent (and I use that word as broadly as I possibly can) Police Conduct Authority's on-line complaints department email address?

The Independent (and I use that word as broadly as I possibly can) Police Conduct Authority is supposed to be our watchdog, not a lap dog, what else haven't they deemed to tell us about Police abusing their powers corruptly? Is it any surprise that Richard Woods, the former head of the Secret Intelligence Service who wrongly held Ahmed Zaoui in solitary confinement for 10months has just been appointed to the Independent (and I use that word as broadly as I possibly can) Police Conduct Authority proving the entry requirements seem to be a high mix of incompetence and ignorance.

If the Independent (and I use that word as broadly as I possibly can) Police Conduct Authority is censoring cases of Police abuse because of a public interest threshold they deem never to be satisfied, how do we know they are looking after our best interests and not the best interests of the Police?