Independent Police Conduct Authority - Independence and Effectiveness

Independence and Effectiveness

The IPCA is supposed to be independent from New Zealand Police. It is not part of the Police and is required to make its findings based on the facts and the law. It does not answer to the Police or anyone else over those findings and in this sense, its independence is similar to that of a Court. The Authority’s status as an independent Crown entity means that there is no political involvement in its operations.

However, there is political involvement in Police policy - which the IPCA is often required to investigate and make recommendations about. The response of Police Minister Judith Collins to the growing number of people being killed in police pursuits on New Zealand roads is a case in point (see 'Deaths from Police Pursuits' below). The IPCA has made numerous recommendations to police to make public safety the priority, based on the fact that most drivers who flee have committed only minor offences. However, Collins has 'staunchly defended' the policy of pursuing any driver who flees. Former police inspector and MP, Ross Meurant is on record as stating that successive governments have placed "the preservation of the police above preservation of the rule of law". Political support for the Police even when its policies are questionable inevitably limits the Authority's ability to bring about meaningful change.

Meurant also questions the integrity of the IPCA because its hearings are held behind closed doors rather than in a public forum. He believes the IPCA has taken on the role of a closed court and that in cases where a death appears to have been caused by police, hearings should be open to the public and to media. Meurant says closed hearings are "corrosive to an open society; abrogating elementary constitutional checks and balances, which are part of the legal fabric of all western democracies, is the beginning of a form of corruption which can easily become endemic."