24 October 2013

Greens call on Auditor-General to investigate police

The Auditor-General needs to investigate how police made errors that could have seen criminals escape justice, the Green Party said today.

Today Parliament was required for a second time to pass retrospective legislation to remedy an error that meant many police officers were operating without legal authority.

“The Green Party has written to the Auditor-General seeking an inquiry into the police’s failure to administer their own law,” Green Party justice spokesperson David Clendon said.

“It is remarkable, and to our knowledge unprecedented, that Parliament should need to pass retrospective legislation twice to ensure that police actions could not be subject to legal challenge.

“The fact that Parliament has twice had to intervene must shake the public’s confidence in the police.

“The Auditor-General needs to look into how police failed to correctly administer their own Act on these two occasions.

“Simply passing the law doesn’t answer the question of why this happened or assure the public that it will not happen again.

“While on the face of it, the error may seem insignificant. In reality, the ability of the police to administer their own legislation is significant.

“Of all organisations, the police need most to show they have the administrative capacity to act within the law and their inability to do so requires an independent investigation to find out why,” said Mr Clendon.

A copy of the letter to the Auditor-General: https://www.greens.org.nz/sites/default/files/letter_to_the_auditor-general.pdf

ENDS

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