Police Minister Judith Collins has launched an extraordinary attack on the media, blaming them for the decline in the respect for the police. Bullshit. The media have simply reported accurately on the police's actions (such as e.g. raping vulnerable women, beating prisoners, and covering for their own). If those actions cause the public to think less of serving police officers, then the police have no-one to blame but themselves. And if they want to restore that reputation, they need to put their house in order - which, to be fair, they seem to be attempting to do, in fits and starts.
But quite apart from the empirical argument, Collins seems to believe that the police are worthy of respect simply by virtue of having power. Such an attitude has no place in a democratic society. Hierarchy died with universal suffrage. And you would think a politician, of all people, would have figured that out by now.
