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More than three years after Prime Minister Helen Clark's motorcade sped through the South Island countryside to get to a rugby game, the final judgment on the trip has been delivered by the Police Complaints Authority.
The authority yesterday found the police decision to charge five officers and one civilian driver after the trip was appropriate, and the police investigation into complaints about the motorcade was carried out in a "thoroughly professional manner".
The PCA report ends the saga that began in July 2004 when drivers took Helen Clark from Waimate to Christchurch airport at high speed so she could catch a flight back to Wellington for an All Blacks rugby test.
Complaints were laid by 16 people about the speeding motorcade. Some motorists were irate when they found it was rushing the Prime Minister so she could get to the rugby. The drivers were convicted but those convictions were later overturned and eventually all of the defendants escaped conviction.
PCA head Justice Lowell Goddard said the defendants felt they were doing their duty but they had not sought proper justification to speed.
The PCA report said police considered whether Helen Clark and former Cabinet Minister Jim Sutton, who was also in her car, should be charged.
"Police accepted independent advice, that other than the six individuals who were found to have cases to answer, there was no evidence upon which charges could be properly brought against any other person in the motorcade," the report said.
National Party police spokesman Chester Borrows said the drivers had been hung out to dry and he was disappointed the PCA report did not give details of the Crown legal advice against finding the politicians liable.
The PCA found most complaints about the motorcade were handled satisfactorily, except for one call to the Southern Communications Centre. The response to that call did not meet the required standard.
