Police response to Commission of Inquiry Report

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Background

Updated: 28 February 2008

New Zealand Police Progress

The Commissioner of Police fully accepted the findings of the Commission of Inquiry, and committed to implementing the recommendations made by the Commission. The New Zealand Police are responsible for 48 of the 60 recommendations. Work has begun on these, with some recommendations already fulfilled. The key highlights so far are:

  1. The Commissioner of Police has developed a programme of work under a programme director who reports progress to the Deputy Commissioner, Operations, as sponsor. Progress is monitored by an internal high level governance committee chaired by the Commissioner of Police.

  2. Police are reviewing and consolidating "all: policies, general instructions and directives. Principles for ensuring consistency in national instructions have also been developed. A permanent Corporate Instruments Group has been established to manage, maintain and provide co-ordination of the development, review and publishing of all operational and administrative guidelines, instructions and policy.

  3. The Police Sexual Harassment policy has undergone extensive revision and consultation and is expected to be finalized in February 2008. The policy has been broadened to apply to all forms of harassment and provides greater scope for mediation and other remedies.

  4. A prototype for Early Intervention reporting has been developed and recently trialed. This is an early warning system that will store information regarding inappropriate behaviour of staff in a single database. This provides a tool that will trigger proactive performance management that will allow all staff to be aware of expectations regarding performance.

  5. Police training in many areas is being reviewed. This includes training on any new, or amendments to, policies and procedures, training for adult sexual assault investigators and dealing with complainants and ethics training (including identifying and managing conflicts of interest). Training components which should be nationally-mandatory are also under review.

  6. Approval has been gained to conduct Police citizen satisfaction surveys. A stocktake of community engagement mechanisms has also taken place to standardise the approach in this area.

  7. The Police have secured interim internal funding for agencies such as "Doctors for Sexual Abuse and Care (DSAC)". This will assist DSAC in providing capability to deliver the required training, support and advice to those involved in supporting or assessing victims of sexual assault. Additionally Police are assisting DSAC with a submission for independent funding to Government for the 2008 / 2009 financial year.

  8. An ongoing State Services Commission review of the police approach to performance management has been established to ensure Police systems are consistent with best practice in the public sector.

See also

2219 since 6 Mar 2008