Police are committed to ensuring a consistently high standard for child abuse investigations, says Commissioner Howard Broad.
In its final report into police management of child abuse investigations released today, the Independent Police Conduct Authority has made one new recommendation, that the Child Protection Implementation Team remains in place to ensure all changes are fully embedded.
"The Authority has acknowledged that we are committed to making improvements to our service, it has recognised the good work we have done and progress made and said it's essential for that momentum to continue," says Mr Broad
Following the Independent Police Conduct Authority's interim report last May, the Implementation team was established to deliver on 34 recommendations made by the Authority and a further seven improvements identified by police.
"We had either completed, or had substantially completed, every one of the 34 actions by the end of October. They are all now complete.
"To give effect to those recommendations I set out a plan with six specific action points aimed at achieving national consistency and lifting child protection standards. These actions have been all been completed
"Work remains to be done on the national implementation of our case management system which applies not just to child abuse but to all investigations and this is being carried out as a priority."
Mr Broad said Police manage 5,000 - 6000 cases of child abuse every year.
"The Authority's inquiry and our own investigations show that the vast majority of these investigations are being dealt with in a timely and proper manner. In every case the safety of the child was paramount and care and protection issues were found to have been addressed."
The national audit of all districts found that while there were some delays, in no other place was the problem similar to the Wairarapa area of the Wellington District.
"The case management system, on which all child abuse investigators have been trained as a priority will help us keep an overview on all our investigations and as an organisation better manage the 400,000 or so files each year. It is important that we have a sturdy system in place.
"While we have extremely committed and dedicated investigators doing their best they were not sufficiently supported by good audit and assurance practices at that time to enable us to keep track of, and manage, those investigations and as a result some were not attended to as they should.
"This was an extremely thorough examination of all of our policies, procedures and practices and conduct as it relates to child abuse. The IPCA found that mostly we did conduct ourselves to the standard expected but in some cases we did not and so we have moved quickly to fix these and to put a more robust system in place.
"Police can never underestimate the impact that offending has on the victims of these abhorrent crimes. I am confident that the most positive thing to come out of this inquiry is a thorough and systematic process backing our highly dedicated officers to resolve these crimes."
ENDS
PNHQ media team: 04 474 9476, 04 474 8856