KEY POINTS:
A decorated police officer who crashed his police wagon into a power pole and then reported the vehicle stolen says he lied to save a job he loved.
In an exclusive interview with the Herald yesterday, former Rotorua sergeant Keith Mitchell said he regretted lying about the crash, which happened last year after a night drinking with a female colleague.
"It was a bad judgment call, a very bad call, which ruined 16 years of outstanding policing," Mitchell said.
The 47-year-old was convicted of careless driving and making a false statement on Monday, and has resigned from his job as head of the Rotorua police dog unit. His marriage also ended after the July 1 incident.
Standing in the dock, Mitchell said he felt "shame and embarrassment".
He told the Herald he had fled the crash and twice lied about the vehicle being stolen because he panicked.
"I didn't want to lose my job because I dearly loved my job and I was very good at it."
He said he was not having an affair with his colleague, nor was he drunk, having breath-tested himself before he left Rotorua police station and discontinued drinking at other bars he went to with the woman.
The judge said Mitchell - who received a police commissioner's commendation in his 16 years in the force - had allowed alcohol and involvement with another person to end a "distinguished career".
Mitchell agreed that his failure to tell the truth had been "a very sad way to end a career of so many achievements".
"I did things in the police that a lot of people wouldn't dream of being able to do," he said.
In 1997, he received a silver merit award for rescuing a 2-year-old boy being held by a man who was pointing a loaded gun at the child's head.
Mitchell grabbed the boy and wrestled the gun off the man as he pulled the trigger.
The commissioner's commendation came the following year after Mitchell was beaten up by eight people when he attended a job alone. "After back-up arrived I managed to track five of them down and arrest them."
He won the national police dog champion award in 1999 and narcotic detector dog champion award in 2003 in partnership with his dogs.
Although proud of his success, he said he was "not a glory hunter".
"I'm just here to do my job," he said. Then he corrected himself: "I was here to do my job."
Mitchell has spent the past year suspended on full pay and his resignation takes effect at the end of this week.
"It's been a tough year, the uncertainty, but I've learnt the police is not the be-all and end-all, and that there are nice people out there when you're not wearing a uniform."
He said he spent his first year in Rotorua "with people wanting to knock my block off" and the main thing he missed was working with the dogs. "For me it was the only job in police. It was the most effective way of catching criminals and you got to work with a partner who was loyal to a fault."
Mitchell helped build up the Rotorua dog unit, which also covers Taupo, from two dogs to eight. He was forced to hand back his last dog, Chase, when he was suspended.
He has no gripes about the way he was treated by police, saying they just did their job, but he believes the organisation as a whole has become "too PC".
Mitchell and his wife are on amicable terms despite their separation, and he spends more time with his two daughters, aged 2 and 4, than when he was in the force. He is living with his father John, who he said has been "a great support", and has a new girlfriend (who is not the same woman he was drinking with on the night of the crash).
