Police rejected 13 IPCA calls to lay charges against staff in past three years

A report says the new police watchdog should be able to call for independent review in cases where they disagree with police over whether staff should face charges.It shows that in the past three years, police have refused to lay charges against staff despite recommendations to do so from the current Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA).In a damning report last November, the IPCA found serious misconduct at the highest levels of the organisation and called for its own powers to be expanded and improved.Ministers accepted in principle all 13 of the IPCA's recommendations, and said they would set up an inspector-general of police to strengthen oversight and public confidence in police.The legislation enabling that was introduced to Parliament on Tuesday, but is yet to have its first reading - and will not until after the election following the adjournment of Parliament on Wednesday.Analysis by the Ministry of Justice on the settings for the new inspector-general, released on Thursday, showed the ministry and minister were aligned on the new powers the role should have.The inspector-general would replace the IPCA, retaining the form of an independent Crown entity, and backed by a board of two to four additional members alongside the inspector-general themselves, including up to two deputy inspectors-general.Board members would not be permitted to have been a police employee in the past decade, but must have knowledge or experience in legal, justice or police systems.The ministry examined four concerns about the powers of the IPCA, which largely reacts to complaints and incidents involving death or serious injury, has ambiguous powers when police disagree with decisions around staff employment and has no final say in cases where charges are recommended against police employees.The minister and ministry both supported significant expansion of powers under the new inspector-general, including:powers to refer charging decisions against police employees to the solicitor-general where they disagree with policea duty to report potential integrity matters concerning senior personnel, even if this falls short of a formal complaintoversight of a wider range of matters than complaints and deadly/serious injury incidentsdirect access to police records where relevantpower to enter police premises by sending written notice to the commissionerclearer guidelines that sharing information or evidence to support recommendations for employment proceedings against police staff, at the inspector-general's discretionand police would be required to consult with the inspector-general on proposed employment outcomes.The paper showed the current settings - where police had the final say in all decisions over whether to lay charges against employees - "suffers from at least the appearance of a conflict of interest".Shifting to a model where an independent agency would have the ability to refer such cases to someone else would align with "all comparable jurisdictions".The analysis showed that over the past three years, 272 criminal investigations of police were carried out with 86 resulting in charges, "broadly comparable" to other countries.However, the IPCA and police disagreed on 17 cases, with no charge laid in 13 of these despite an IPCA recommendation, and four resulting in charges despite the IPCA not recommending a charge.In court, about 75 percent of police staff charged were acquitted, compared to about 20 percent in other cases.The analysis called for the inspector-general to refer cases to the solicitor-general where they disagreed with police on whether or which charges should be laid, or if they considered an independent review would benefit the public, accounting for an estimated 20 percent of cases.Police would then be bound by legal advice from the solicitor-general on charges.