Lack of resources slows down police

Many serious crimes, including aggravated robberies and sexual assaults, are still not being investigated in Auckland because of a lack of resources.

In the past few months, a series of homicides have tied up the majority of Auckland City's CIB staff, leaving officers unable to investigate many other serious crimes.
Of the 122 CIB positions allocated to the district, 21 are vacant, adding to the pressure on the staff who have recently been working 16-hour days on the homicide investigations.

At one stage, sources say, all but three of the district's CIB officers were tied up investigating the murders of minimart employee Bhagubhai Vaghela, Karaoke Bar owner Tam Yam Ah and Hillsborough mother Katrina Jefferies.

During one of those investigations, some staff were working 14 days in a row.

Experienced officers say those kinds of hours are leaving detectives exhausted and unable to deal with other files.

Earlier this year police said 2043 cases were waiting to be assigned to officers around the country, 410 in Auckland City.

An experienced Auckland CIB officer said most of those cases had now been assigned but the problem had not been resolved. There was still no time to investigate them.

"It's a case of the squeaky wheel gets the oil," said the officer, who did not want to be identified. "People who yell a lot get their cases investigated. We are not providing a good service, and it's crap. It really hurts to say that as a police officer, but it's true."

Auckland City acting district commander Detective Superintendent Gavin Jones said the shortage of CIB investigators had created some pressures.

However, the district had activated a contingency plan to deal with historical, current and incoming cases.

"Because NZ Police are a national organisation we have been able to draw on the support of 30 CIB staff from other districts around the country," he said. "This has ensured that the homicide teams are fully resourced and all current and historical cases are being actively investigated."

Nine of those 30 staff have been seconded from outside the Auckland region to work on other cases while the remainder are from within the region and helping with the homicides.

However, sources say the seconded staff are a short-term measure and will do little to ease the growing pressure throughout the district.

The unnamed officer said that even if staff levels were doubled Auckland Central's CIB would still struggle to cope with the workload.

"We work absolutely massive hours. We are grossly understaffed."

"It's not just a matter of bums on seats ... It takes a long time to train people to become a competent detective or detective constable."

The officer said the key to retaining and attracting CIB staff was giving them a pay that reflected the work they did.

Police Association spokesman Greg O'Connor said the resourcing problem was affecting CIB staff in all of Auckland's policing districts.