KEY POINTS:
Public confidence, once eroded, is difficult to reclaim. Recovery is not impossible, however. Unstinting effort to the highest standard provides a strong foundation for rebuilding a reputation. The police have made a good start.
Their much-troubled year has been salvaged to a degree by the Independent Police Conduct Authority's findings on Operation Austin, the investigation of Louise Nicholas's revelations. Few such inquiries could have delivered such ringing praise.
The authority's report adds to ground that has been traversed extensively since Mrs Nicholas went public with allegations of pack rape in the Bay of Plenty in the 1980s by Clint Rickards, who has now resigned as an assistant commissioner, and Brad Shipton and Bob Schollum, his now-jailed police colleagues.
The standing of the police suffered as the trio were twice acquitted in controversial trials, and an inquiry into the handling of sexual complaints against officers damned police culture and made a staggering 60 recommendations for change.
The police must have feared an equally savage buffeting from an independent authority probing Operation Austin, which had failed to convince a jury of the charges it brought against Mr Rickards, who described the operation as a "shambles".
Authority chairwoman Justice Lowell Goddard, QC, however, concluded it was ground-breaking, and dismissed criticisms that the operation was biased or had taken too long. "There are aspects of it I consider to be exemplary and should be put in the police manual of best practice for the future," she said.
The authority's 36-page review is particularly instructive in describing the difficulties faced by the operation team. Theirs had been an "unprecedented" exercise in terms of its scope and duration. They faced a particular problem in the fact that new allegations surfaced almost every week, many very similar to the Nicholas case.
A team of 30 sworn officers and 18 non-sworn staff worked long hours just to keep up. Even so, a point was reached where it was asked whether the arrival of so many new matters meant a line had to be drawn and victims turned away. Wisely, it was decided to address every new complainant without exception, and new ground was broken when each victim was given her own liaison officer.
Operation Austin, concluded the authority, left "no stone unturned to try and rectify the damage done to victims and to the police's reputation by a very few rogue elements within its ranks".
Such praise contrasts sharply with the review's verdict on Mr Rickards. It accused him of bias and overstating some issues "to the point of exaggeration". Mr Rickards' subsequent statements support that view.
His belief that he still has the support of leading Maori has been demonstrated to be much overstated. Equally foolish were his utterances that Mrs Nicholas was "a liar who definitely needs help", and that he felt betrayed by former police commissioner Rob Robinson.
The independent nature of the authority's review makes it more noteworthy. It should demonstrate to the police that they have nothing to fear and much to gain from outside scrutiny when they perform to a standard of professionalism that New Zealanders had been, until recently, accustomed to receiving.
Operation Austin was the first step on the road to a recovery of confidence in the police. The outcome of the Urewera investigation will be important too, and the 111 emergency line must be restored to reliability. But the first step is the most crucial. It has set the standard we can again expect.
