Though the downfall of former Deputy Police Commissioner Jevon McSkimming seems to have transitioned to dramatic events – there are still several issues that have not yet been made clear. Until there is 100% transparency to the ‘issues at hand’ or to ‘the issues that were at hand’, the public’s trust in the New Zealand Police will continue to fall.

The New Zealand public should refrain from thinking the ‘bad’ that occurred by the NZ Police in failing to address the anonymous complaints, against one of their own brass, has now come to an end.

With an interest and vocation linked to combatting corruption, I have followed this case closely, making personal notes, speaking to journalists who initiated the reporting and making requests pursuant to the Official Information Act 1982. For these reasons I am well informed to speak and provide observations on the relevant issues that need transparency and accountability.

Key to these issues is managing conflicts of interest. Managing conflicts of interest is not in a written law but without managing conflicts of interest, corruption can easily result. Corruption includes failing to adequately manage a bias and using powers of authority and statutory decision making that is clearly demonstrated as bias, or outside of a statutory power.

The issues that the New Zealand public need to see the New Zealand Police address are far greater than the conflicts of interests that appear to have been inadequately managed in this most recent saga. However, this Institutional Trust challenge that the public have continuously identified over decades, upon decades, with the NZ Police is, in part, due to the failings of the New Zealand Independent Police Conduct Authority (the NZ IPCA).

It does not seem that the 135 page NZ IPCA Investigation Report has addressed their own failings – and why would they?

These are the problems that are transparent in New Zealand’s infrastructure of Law and Order. Because New Zealanders witness these repeated failures it demonstrates an institutional failure of the NZ Police and of the NZ Independent Police Conduct Authority – not private individuals who were part of the broken system.

You can’t stop these corruptible acts unless you get to the core or the root of the problem. In New Zealand, the root of the problem is the lack of infrastructure to prevent these types of issues arising. This is not a ‘new’ problem – that is an institutional problem and those with responsibility for these failings include the Chief Executive Officer of the NZ Police and/or the Police Commissioner (I think they are the same), including the Minister of Police and the Chair of the Independent Police Conduct Authority.

It is beyond any doubt that the root of all evil with NZ Police integrity and failure of simple systems has been occurring under the watch of each of the above parties. Accordingly, to address the real issues, there still needs to be full transparency of all underlying issues. The NZ Independent Police Conduct Authority is yet to address these root causes.

This Jevon McSkimming case study is just another repeat of New Zealand’s failings of public experiencing a decline of integrity and trust with the New Zealand Police. The partnership between the public and the NZ Police should be on the basis that systems are demonstrated to be operating and operating well to serve people with a service of trust.

The NZ IPCA Investigation Report has, in my opinion, demonstrated a bias towards Mr McSkimming. By means of demonstration, the IPCA have chosen to add details of ‘anonymous’ allegations that harm the nature and character of Mr McSkimming. Despite the IPCA taking the position to detail the anonymous allegations, the IPCA also confirms its role is not to state whether the allegations are true or false. Accordingly, if the allegations are false that were made by the anonymous source, then the IPCA has only added to the harm of Mr McSkimming.

Such conduct, in my opinion, would be removing from Mr McSkimming his right to the natural course of justice. This right is afforded to all New Zealanders arises from New Zealand’s Bill of Rights Act. The Natural Course of Justice means the four walls of a court – not published innuendo based on anonymous allegations.

Further, the IPCA is taking the position that the NZ Police failed to investigate these anonymous complaints. It makes absolute sense not to waste time investigating a source of information which has been delivered anonymously and is 6-7 years historic. Why the IPCA thinks this is a failing is not clear.

The IPCA has also failed to observe that you cannot have a genuine complaint when there is no complainant to give a formal statement.

That the anonymous allegations were vexatious and designed to push McSkimming off his perch and deny him the role of Police Commissioner can be demonstrated by aligning to the timing of the anonymous information being delivered through police systems in an anonymous fashion. It all sounds a bit like child-play.

The NZ Police and the Independent Police Conduct Authority need to rule out that all these series of anonymous reports of allegations against McSkimming did not stem from professional jealously or from persons from within the NZ Police who preferred Richard Chambers to be the next top cop.

Other issues relevant and yet to be fully disclosed, is the potential improper political meddling of the appointment process of the NZ Police Commissioner role. That Mr Mitchell clearly preferred to work with Richard Chambers as Police Commissioner and not with Jevon McSkimming, has been acknowledged by Mr Mitchell through his video media statements and interviews with journalists and broadcasters.

These issues of potentially improper political interference from the Minister of Police, Mr Mitchell, have not yet been examined by oversight bodies. Because such bodies do not exist, the public can rely on the Official Information Act to obtain relevant information which is not yet publicly available.

More to follow.

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