The police officer involved in a fatal Hamilton car chase last year has been cleared of wrong-doing following a Independent Police Conduct Authority investigation.
However, authority chairwoman Lowell Goddard said there were problems with the police northern communications centre that needed to be fixed.
Israel Porter, 27, was killed when the station wagon he was driving collided with a van as he fled police in suburban Huntingdon, northeast Hamilton, on the afternoon of March 27 last year.
Mr Porter reached speeds of up to 160kmh and drove on the wrong side of the road.
The officer, who never got close to the station wagon, was about to radio in that he was abandoning the pursuit when he came across the accident.
Mr Porter died at the scene while six people in the van escaped serious injury.
The chase lasted less than two minutes over about 4km.
Tests showed Mr Porter was over the drink-drive alcohol limit and had smoked cannabis in the hours beforehand.
Justice Goddard found the officer was justified in chasing Mr Porter and had done the right thing in his communication, the speed and manner of his driving, and the decision to abandon the chase in the interests of public safety.
However, the pursuit controller at the police northern communications centre was briefly distracted by technical computer issues and did not take effective command and control of the situation, she said.
By the time of the crash he was not aware of the history of the pursuit or the known risk factors.
Although the pursuit was brief, the controller should have started communicating with the officer regarding on-going risk assessment and the option of abandoning, Justice Goddard said.
She repeated her recommendation that hands-free communication be installed in all operational police vehicles after hearing that at one stage during the chasing officer was unable to safely operate the radio while going through an intersection.
