Police acknowledge more officers needed in Counties Manukau

Police acknowledge they need to put more officers into the Counties Manukau district after a report said the area was more demanding and violent than other districts.

Difficulties policing the district were noted by Sir David Tompkins, QC, after an inquiry into the now disbanded police Emergency Response Group at Counties Manukau.

The district suffered more serious crime, and there were more severe assaults on officers than in other districts, Sir David said in a report released yesterday.

It was staffed by relatively junior officers and supervisory positions were temporarily filled by junior staff for longer than desirable periods. The average length of service in the district was eight years -- the lowest in the country. In Canterbury the average was 15.

Public confidence in the district was also lower than other districts.

Today Acting Commissioner of Police Steve Long agreed Counties Manukau needed more staff.

"We are doing some work in that regard right now. Thirty-one more staff are coming this year as a result of business cases made to government and we will make more," he said.

The police leadership in Counties Manukau was also being helped to use existing resources more efficiently, and efforts were being made to help them with the supervision issue raised in the report.

Counties Manukau was a difficult policing environment with policing challenges, Mr Long told TV One's Breakfast programme.

"It is a vibrant, lively, multi-ethnic community but what it does take are very good police officers, and my message to the community is they've got very good police officers there and support them."

Sir David's inquiry found members of the Emergency Response Group at Counties Manukau degraded and used excessive force against arrested people, which went unreported because of a "blue code of silence".

But there was no widespread culture in the police of excessive violence or inappropriate conduct.

The inquiry was launched after the conviction in February of Senior Sergeant Anthony Solomona for assaulting 17-year-old Angelo Turner, whom he photographed wearing a humiliating sign, prompting District Court Judge Bruce Davidson to complain about a "sick" police culture.

Following Sir David's findings, the Police Association is demanding an apology from Judge Davidson.

"The damage done to the reputation of Counties Manukau police by Judge Davidson's comment about a widespread sick culture, is only partly undone by today's report," Police Association president Greg O'Connor said yesterday.

- NZPA