Stuff reports that the Independent Police Conduct Authority has found that a pair of police prosecutors acted "unprofessionally" in discussing a prosecution with a colleague who was a defendant in the case:
“The defendant had approached the prosecution staff to discuss aspects of his case and in doing so the officers failed to recognise the conflict of interest arising from the relationship between the prosecution and the defendant,” the IPCA said.Firstly, we should call this what it is - not merely "unprofessional", but corrupt, an example of police looking out for each other and not the public. That needs to be taken seriously, and rooted out. Minimising such behaviour is not going to help in that. Secondly, note that the police's approach is to cover it up, refusing even to say which district has a problem with corrupt prosecutors. And that is simply not acceptable. To point out the obvious, this prevents us from seeing a pattern (as there seems to be with police brutality in Hāwera), or really knowing how widespread the problem might be. And that too seems self-serving and corrupt, the police putting their own interests ahead of accountability to the public. Which I guess tells us that the problem isn't only with these prosecutors, and goes all the way to PNHQ.The investigation found the two officers “acted unprofessionally and exercised poor judgement” in meeting with the defendant.
Both officers received an “employment outcome” for their actions.
A police spokesperson declined to say where the staff were working at the time of the incident.
