The Commission of Inquiry into Police Conduct (COI) was announced in early 2004 following allegations suggesting police officers might have deliberately undermined or mishandled investigations into complaints of sexual assault made against other officers. The Commission was established to carry out a full, independent investigation into the way New Zealand Police had dealt with allegations of sexual assault by a small number of Police officers and their associates.
The report by Commissioner Dame Margaret Bazley was released in 2007 and covered the period from 1979 to 2005. The report made 60 recommendations: 47 for Police, 12 for the Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA), and one for the Government. The recommendations covered several broad themes: how police investigate sexual assault complaints; how complaints against police are handled; behaviour, performance management and discipline; Police’s diversity, inclusion and the health of the organisation; and policy, practice and processes. Police committed to fully implementing the recommendations.
Fifteen years of change
Just over fifteen years on from the report of the Commission of Inquiry into Police Conduct, Police has published a final report of its recent work in line with the themes addressed by the report and commissioned a final review by an independent expert.
'Fifteen years of change 2007 - 2022'
- View the 15 years of change 2007-2022 report (PDF 7.4MB)
Expert review
A decade of change
Police’s progress against the Commission of Inquiry’s 47 Police-related recommendations was monitored for ten years by the Office of the Auditor-General. At the completion of that monitoring period, Police committed to making ongoing advances in each thematic area. Police released a summary of progress against the recommendation themes and a reference guide noting progress against each individual recommendation. In addition, two independent reviews were commissioned by Police.
'A decade of change 2007-2017'
A summary of how Police has actioned the 47 police-specific recommendations from the Commission of Inquiry (COI) into Police Conduct.
- View the 'A decade of change' 2007-2017 report (PDF 4.6MB)
'At a glance'
A quick reference guide to the 47 Police-specific COI recommendations, organised recommendation-by-recommendation.
- View the reference guide (PDF 374KB)
Expert reviews
Two independent reviews commissioned from experts on policing and ethics, to help gauge progress in implementing the Police-specific COI recommendations.
- February 2017 report by Prof Mike Rowe and A/Prof Michael Macaulay (PDF 318KB)
- March 2016 report by lead researcher Dr Rick Parent (PDF 3MB)
Monitoring and reporting
A ten-year monitoring and reporting regime was put in place to track the progress of the implementation of the Commission’s recommendations. The monitoring period ran from 1 April 2007 until 31 March 2017.
The monitoring and reporting regime incorporates the following:
- Quarterly progress reports
In June 2007, Cabinet requested quarterly monitoring reports produced jointly by Police, the then State Services Commission (SSC), and the Ministry of Justice (on behalf of the IPCA).
In 2012, the Minister for State Services recommended the format of the quarterly reports be condensed. A new reporting format was adopted from 31 March 2013.
Note: Recommendation 60 proposed that the Government invite the Controller and Auditor-General to monitor Police implementation progress for 10 years. The Office of the Auditor-General accepted this invitation upon release of the report in 2007, so progress against this recommendation does not appear in the Quarterly Reports.
View the Commission of Inquiry quarterly progress reports. - External monitoring and reporting by the Office of the Auditor-General
The Office of the Auditor-General monitors Police’s progress in implementing the Commission’s recommendations.
The reports of the Office of the Auditor-General are available on the Controller and Auditor-General website: - Change Management Programme progress reviews
- Final progress review - Phase eight [PDF, 377KB]
- Progress review - Phase seven [PDF, 177KB]
- Progress review - Phase six [PDF, 89KB]
- Progress review - Phase five [PDF, 2.8MB]
- Progress review - Phase four [PDF, 1.3MB]
- Progress review - Phase three [PDF, 1.1MB]
- Police Workplace Survey
The Commission recommended that SSC carry out an independent annual health audit of Police throughout the COI monitoring period (Recommendation 51). To give effect to this recommendation, SSC agreed for Police to implement an annual workplace survey conducted by an independent agency.
View the complete information on the Police Workplace Survey, including all annual reports.
Commission of Inquiry report
Visit the New Zealand Parliament website to view the full Commission of Inquiry into Police Conduct report.