The figures were disclosed in response to an Official Information Act request by Hawke's Bay Today.
Police officers charged included Flaxmere community constable Adam Dunnett who was jailed last July for 22 months after being found guilty of indecently assaulting five teenage girls at alcohol-fuelled parties.
Dunnett, 38, who claimed the girls led him on, initially faced 10 counts of indecent assault against the five teenage girls, all older than 16 at the time, but four of the charges were dismissed.
The disgraced officer was a surf life saving coach at the Ocean Beach Surf Club, one of the locations, along with the Taradale Fire Station, where the assaults took place between May 2011 and New Year's Day 2013.
Another police officer was charged with dangerous driving causing injury after crashing his rare hot rod in September last year.
Flaxmere constable Shane Greville was off duty when his black Chevrolet Camaro was involved in a collision with another car along Napier Rd in Havelock North.
An internal police investigation was conducted after a female driver was injured and taken to hospital as a result of the incident. The case is still before the courts.
In 2013, an intoxicated off-duty police constable assaulted a woman on a bus. Mikayla Paul, 23, was on a bus taking a group of people to an Ahuriri bar when she violently attacked the victim, Lisa O'Connor. Earlier that evening, Ms O'Connor had accused Paul and her friend of snorting drugs in a rugby club toilet cubicle, which they strongly denied. Ms O'Connor suffered from bruising and had clumps of hair missing after the assault. It was Paul's third conviction while in the police force. In February 2010, she pleaded guilty to a charge of careless driving causing injury. In November 2010, she pleaded guilty to driving while disqualified. She has since left the police.
Eastern Police professional conduct manager Inspector Chris Wallace admitted some staff were not up to scratch. "Unfortunately some staff will not meet the standards or expectations required by police," he said. "In some cases, criminal behaviour does occur and we treat police staff no differently to other members of the public."
Allegations of bad behaviour or criminal offending were taken very seriously.
"We constantly try to uphold the high standards of behaviour the public expects of us ... police have a robust and thorough investigation process that looks into allegations of wrongdoing by staff."
Investigations are often carried out by police from other districts to ensure transparency.
"We will not hesitate to prosecute police staff if a case is found against them."
Nationally, 131 police officers faced criminal charges in the past five years.
The number of police charged was highest in 2013 at 35. Last year, 29 police were charged.
Between 2010 and 2014, 313 police received counselling, 373 were disciplined through professional conversation, 173 received performance management and an adverse report was filed for one police officer. Another 178 police were given first warnings, 63 second warnings and 71 officers were given third and final warnings. Five officers were dismissed and five were reprimanded.
Meanwhile, 136 officers resigned and 17 retired during the disciplinary process.
Labour's police spokesman Kelvin Davis said any issues with police were regrettable.
"It is disappointing that there have been any disciplinary issues in the police at all but ... it is great that they are addressing areas of discipline and performance," Mr Davis said. He expected police were taking incidents involving officers more seriously.
"There was obviously a spike in disciplinary action in 2012 and 2013 but, without an in-depth analysis of each case, it is hard to comment on reasons. Maybe the police were taking issues a lot more seriously and addressed things that in the past may have been overlooked, which is a good thing."NZME.
