The Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA, ) is an independent civilian oversight body that considers complaints against the New Zealand Police and oversees their conduct. It derives its responsibilities and powers from the Independent Police Conduct Authority Act. Under section 12(1) of the Act, the Authority's functions are to receive complaints alleging misconduct or neglect of duty by police employees; or concerning any practice, policy, or procedure of New Zealand Police and to take action as contemplated by the Act. It may also investigate any police incident involving death or serious bodily harm and make recommendations to the Commissioner of Police based on those investigations.
The Authority also monitors conditions of detention and treatment of detainees in police custody. In this respect, the IPCA is one of several 'national preventive mechanisms' designated in 2007 under an amendment to the Crimes of Torture Act. Other agencies with responsibility for monitoring places of detention include the Human Rights Commission, the Children's Commissioner and the Ombudsmen. Together, these agencies including the IPCA, have joint responsibility to uphold New Zealand's commitment to the Optional Protocol to the United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Forms of Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment (OPCAT).
History
Prior to 1989, complaints against the police were investigated internally by police. Following several years of debate about police accountability, sparked in part by the role of Police during the 1981 South Africa rugby union tour of New Zealand, the Police Complaints Authority was established on 1 April 1989. The Police Complaints Authority was made up by a single investigator and a small support staff. The first Authority was High Court Judge Peter Quilliam. Because of its reliance on police to investigate themselves, the Authority was perceived as not being independent. Allan Galbraith, was appointed as the Authority's first Manager of Investigations in 2003 and held that position until 2010. He had been a member of the New Zealand Police for 37 years.
In 2004, a number of historic sexual misconduct allegations dating from the 1980s were made against both serving and former police officers. During that year, Prime Minister Helen Clark announced a Commission would be established to carry out an independent investigation into the way in which the New Zealand Police had dealt with allegations of sexual assault. The investigation was conducted by Dame Margaret Bazley and took three years. It reviewed 313 complaints of sexual assault against 222 police officers, including 141 that Dame Margaret said were credible enough for legal action.
Dame Margaret's inquiry identified the inadequacy of police investigations into misconduct by their own officers and recommended that a more independent investigative body was needed. In November 2007, the Independent Police Conduct Authority was established as a Board of up to five members headed by a Judge. The new Authority was mandated to focus on conducting investigations independent from police.
Membership
At its inception, the new authority was headed by High Court Judge, Lowell Goddard. And in August 2010, parliament appointed three new board members to the authority: Angela Hauk-Willis, a former deputy secretary of treasury, with special responsibility for corporate governance, Maori responsiveness, and ethics and integrity; Dianne Macaskill chief executive and chief archivist at Archives New Zealand from 2001 to 2009; and Richard Woods, who from 1999 to 2006, was the director of the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service, and from 2008 was chairperson of the Environmental Risk Management Authority.
In April 2012, Judge Sir David Carruthers, former chairman of the New Zealand Parole Board, was appointed chair of the Independent Police Conduct Authority for a term of five years. Soon after he took over, he said he wanted to see more of the watchdog's work opened to public scrutiny.
In 2015 Parliament approved a Notice of Motion reappointing Dianne Macaskill and appointing Simon Murdoch CNZM as part time members of the Authority for a term of three years.
Judge Sir David Carruthers retired in August 2017 and was succeeded by Judge Colin Doherty as chair of the authority for a term of five years.