Lowell Goddard. Photo / Mark Mitchell
The Police Complaints Authority is boosting its resources for a major investigation of the police inquiry that triggered three high-profile rape trials.
Complaints Authority head Justice Lowell Goddard said yesterday the authority would act quickly on the probe of Operation Austin.
"I would put it into the extraordinary
category," she told a parliamentary select committee.
"And because it has such high public interest and is very much current, I think it's very important for the authority to get on swiftly and conduct an independent investigation."
Operation Austin was the police inquiry into alleged misconduct by Rotorua police that led to Assistant Police Commissioner Clint Rickards and former officers Brad Shipton and Bob Schollum facing historic rape charges.
Costing at least $3 million, the investigation was savaged by Mr Rickards shortly after he was acquitted as an inquiry he "would have been ashamed to lead". Shipton and Schollum were convicted of rape in one of the trials.
Mr Rickards has publicly said he intends to complain to the authority about the investigation, and it is understood he has done so.
Justice Goddard said the Police Complaints Authority urgently needed extra staff to conduct the investigation into Operation Austin, but she believed it would be able to meet the cost from within existing funds.
"I want to emphasise that this investigation we are about to commence will be entirely a Police Complaints Authority investigation - we will not be drawing on or relying on police assistance for that."
Justice Goddard also revealed she has been thinking about the impact that next week's release of the Commission of Inquiry into Police Conduct will have on her organisation.
She suggested there might be some "constructive criticism" of the authority in the report.
If several complaints were triggered as a result of the inquiry it may put further pressure on the authority's resources.
