New Zealand: Police didn't handle sexual harassment complaints against in-house doctor well, says watchdog

An investigation in New Zealand has found that allegations of sexual harassment against an in-house doctor made by new recruits were not properly investigated, reported local media. The investigation into police handling of the complaints was carried out by Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA). The concerned doctor worked with police between 1999 and 2016 and the police department continued sending new recruits to the doctor for medical tests. The complaints were raised roughly during the same period. The complainants include men, as well as women.

NZ Herald reported that the medical test, known simply as 'medical', is the final step in the recruitment process and the doctor conducted anal examinations and asked the recruits to undress. IPCA said that such actions were not common during a medical test. The watchdog received two complaints in 2019 about poor handling of internal complaints by the police department.

“We found that recruits had raised their concerns about the doctor’s medicals at least seven times between 2002 and 2014/15. Police had failed to act and continued to send recruits to the doctor,” the authority said in a statement, as quoted by NZ Herald.

The police department launched an investigation only in 2017 when a formal complaint was lodged. The Medical Council was notified but the investigation said that there was insufficient evidence to charge the person.

“We found that the criminal investigation of the doctor conducted by police in 2017 was of an acceptable standard. However, we also found police had failed to investigate any of the concerns raised between 2002 and 2014/15,” the authority said.

“In addition, we reached the view that while the criminal investigators offered appropriate support to recruits during the criminal investigation, the member of police executive who knew about the allegations failed adequately to support the recruits throughout the criminal investigation and Medical Council process.”

However, the watchdog said that when the extent of the allegations was clear, the police should have fully investigated why the earlier complaints were not acted upon.

“By not doing so, Police failed to gather the information necessary to enable them to reach proper conclusions about how they had initially dealt with the recruits’ concerns,” IPCA said, as quoted by NZ Herald.

Police acceptmistake

The police department has acknowledged and accepted the findings.

“Police would like to acknowledge the people who were affected and who had the courage to come forward and speak up when they felt something wasn’t right," Deputy Commissioner Tania Kura, as quoted by NZ Herald.

“This is clearly a situation in which the police’s high standards when dealing with historic allegations of this kind have not been met."

It is important to note that both police’s own criminal investigation, and a disciplinary investigation by the Medical Council’s Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal, found insufficient grounds to proceed with further action, including criminal charges.

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