Report of the Hon Sir David Tompkins QC concerning the Counties Manukau Police District
Date Published:
September 2005
In February 2005 charges of assault laid against Senior Sergeant Solomona were heard in the District Court at Manukau. During the hearing, evidence was given of certain photographs said to have been in the possession of the Senior Sergeant.
As a consequence of these references and evidence given concerning them, the District Court Judge, in his judgment delivered on 2 March 2005, referred to the practice of taking photographs of suspects or offenders of a demeaning kind and recorded his impression from the evidence that this practice maybe widespread, especially in the South Auckland area.
Referring to evidence that this was regarded by the police as a joke, he observed that "the culture is as sick as the joke".
These observations, and the widespread media publicity they attracted, caused the Commissioner of Police to set up an internal police inquiry that was named Operation Reason. On 4 March 2005, the Hon Sir David Tompkins QC was asked to oversee the inquiry and to report his findings to the Commissioner. This report describes the investigations that were carried out and his findings resulting from them.