Serious failures in the police investigation of child abuse cases during the last decade must never be repeated, Independent Police Conduct Authority chairwoman Justice Lowell Goddard said today.
She has released the second part of a nationwide IPCA inquiry into how police conducted child abuse investigations, with police slated for undesirable practices, particularly in the Wairarapa region.
Several officers have faced code of conduct investigations as a result of two major police operations which delved into child abuse files, with the results of some conduct cases still pending.
"The authority has concluded there were serious failures in the police investigation of child abuse, which must never be repeated," Justice Goddard said today.
"However, in the course of its inquiry the authority also heard from many dedicated and committed police officers, and is confident that they are representative of the majority of officers involved in child abuse investigations."
She noted that police had responded positively to the first part of her report, released last May, and said it was imperative that child abuse cases must be reported to police.
"The public can have every confidence that police are committed to ensuring a consistently high standard of service in the investigation of child abuse," she said.
The probes all started when a Masterton police officer, Detective Suzanne Mackle, complained of her workload dealing with Wairarapa sexual abuse cases. By June 2006, she held about 142 child abuse files in which there had been little or no progress.
While police chiefs set up practices to rectify the situation, they accepted advice from the officer in charge of the Masterton CIB, Detective Sergeant Mark McHattie, the situation was being managed. He said on August 31, 2006, the cases requiring action had reduced to 57 files. Five days later, he said it was down to 29 files.
But a police audit carried out in 2008 identified 46 files had been closed during August and September 2006, the majority of them on August 31 and September 31.
The audit found 33 of them were "filed incorrectly" or "inappropriately resolved".
"The lack of timely and professional service was undesirable, unjustified and unfair to the child victims," Justice Goddard said.
Police undertook a thorough audit of child abuse files nationwide and the results showed that delays and other problems in child abuse investigations were not confined to Wairarapa, although nowhere else was the problem so acute.
The IPCA was advised that police started 18 code of conduct investigations. Five staff were cleared of any misconduct and dealt with through informal processes. Six more investigations had been completed and police were still to complete seven more.
After all investigations were complete, decisions would be made by the police national disciplinary committee, the IPCA said.
Sixty seven other staff were subject to informal interventions as a result of the two police audits.
Significant changes and improvements had been made to practices, policies and procedures in all police districts, Justice Goddard said.
Police had set up a child protection implementation project team in response to the first part of the IPCA report and she recommended that it continue for at least another year to ensure the new practices were well established nationally.
The IPCA made 34 recommendations in the first stage of its report.
Justice Goddard said the scale of the IPCA inquiry was unprecedented. It reviewed more than 41,847 documents, conducted hearings involving 55 examinations on oath, with 33 interviews.
