On 19 December 2008, Francisco Javier de Larratea Soler was detained by police after being found in a highly intoxicated state lying on a footpath in Whakatane. The police stuck hi in a cell to "sleep it off". Seven and a half hours later he was dead. The cause? A nasty cocktail of drugs and alcohol. But the reason? Police neglect.
That's the conclusion of the Independent Police Conduct Authority's investigation into the death [PDF]. Reading through it, it is a litany of police officers who did not do their jobs properly, who consistently flouted policies and regulations designed to ensure they met their statutory duty of care towards their prisoner. The arresting officers assessed him as "not in need of care", despite detaining him for being extremely intoxicated, so intoxicated he could not properly answer their questions. The watchhouse keeper failed to conduct proper checks required by local and national policy and regulations to ensure the physical wellbeing of the prisoners in his care, and abandoned his post without ensuring that anyone would do his job in his absence. The supervisor, who was supposed to be ensuring that these things were done, didn't. As a result, Mr de Larratea Soler was left to die in a cell and lie dead for up to four hours, with the death only being discovered when a new shift came on.
The IPCA sheets this blame home to the individual officers involved in fairly uncompromising terms. But despite this, the Police decided not to subject any of them to disciplinary proceedings and the IPCA agreed. You expect the police to cover for their own, but the IPCA is meant to be a check on that tendency. Given the strength of their findings, you would expect a recommendation for disciplinary action, an acknowledgement within the employment relationship that these people have failed to do their jobs properly and fucked up in an unconscionable way. But no, that's apparently too much to expect. So, a man dies basically because the arresting officers did not give a shit, and the people whose job it was to look after him didn't either - and nobody is held accountable for it.
And the IPCA wonders why people regard it as a waste of space, a pack of professional whitewashers... maybe they should try reading their own reports sometime.
