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The country's top Maori police officer has given a vote of confidence to Police Commissioner Howard Broad, who has been under fire over dealings with Maori communities during the nationwide anti-terror raids last month.
Superintendent Wally Houmaha said: "He's got a big heart for the kaupapa, I can't emphasise that enough. He takes responsibility for it [the police operation]. It's a difficult position to be in."
Mr Houmaha was among 100 Maori police staff at the annual Responsiveness to Maori meeting in Palmerston North this week. He said police went into the Urewera region to do a job - to put a stop to unlawful activity.
He backed Mr Broad, who he said was an "architect" of the Responsiveness to Maori plan, which was about working with Maori communities, and who for the past two years had also been out on the road developing relationships with different iwi.
But he admitted Maori police officers did not put hard questions to Mr Broad, as the meeting was not the right forum. Officers focused on wider issues affecting Maori such as high imprisonment rates and social ills.
