Police fail to keep vulnerable woman safe on two occasions, IPCA rule

The Independent Police Conduct Authority has found Counties Manukau police failed to keep a woman prisoner safe on two separate occasions she was in their custody. Photo / File

Counties Manukau police have landed in hot water after the Independent Police Conduct Authority found officers failed to keep a woman prisoner safe on two occasions on which she was in their custody.

In one incident the woman was found with her bra wrapped her neck, while on another occasion she used a sock to try and strangle herself.

After investigating the incidents, from October and November last year, the IPCA found police failed to appropriately receive, evaluate, and monitor the woman while she was in their custody.

In the first instance, on October 24, the woman was arrested for breaching her bail and left in her cell for five minutes.

During that time she used a sock to try and asphyxiate herself and was found lying on the floor.

When staff found the woman she was breathing but unresponsive.

It was only after staff re-entered the cell, they noticed the sock around her neck and called an ambulance. The woman was later sedated and placed in intensive care. She was discharged from hospital two days later.

On November 18, the woman was again arrested and put in a cell with another woman prisoner.

After 30 minutes the call button was activated by the other prisoner. However, as officers didn't notice the activation they didn't turn up for several minutes.

She again did not appear to be breathing and had her bra wrapped around her neck.

She was taken to hospital and later discharged by medical and psychiatric staff into the care of Corrections staff.

Authority chair Judge Colin Doherty said they identified "a number of failings by police staff" including poor communication, the quality and accuracy of their risk evaluations and levels of monitoring.

"It is evident that in both instances police did not sufficiently fulfil their duty of care to her."

Counties Manukau Superintendent Jill Rogers said police accepted the report's findings.

"In these two instances we clearly did not provide the duty of care that is expected when monitoring people being held in our custody unit, particularly those individuals identified as being at-risk.

"This is obviously disappointing and we acknowledge that there were several shortcomings identified by the police staff involved in these two incidents."

The incidents had been investigated and police had identified "learnings where we can
improve our practices".

"Since this incident we have notified the IPCA that we are subsequently in the process of implementing a plan to improve the way staff evaluate and monitor individuals held in our custody unit in order to prevent this from happening again."