Police sorry for wrongful arrest

Police have apologised after wrongfully arresting a man who was unaware he was under a protection order.

Northland Police have apologised to a 55-year-old man who was wrongfully arrested for a protection-order breach he did not know he had against him.

The Whangarei man was arrested on March 20 this year when a police officer arrived at his home saying there had been a breach of a protection order involving his ex-partner.

On Tuesday, police revealed that following the arrest they discovered the order had not actually been served and the man was immediately released, after spending about an hour at the Whangarei police station.

The man told national radio that police gave him a protection order from his ex-partner and then gave him a ride home.

An officer told him he had three months to file an objection to the order, but after he left he read that he actually only had 10 days.

The following Monday, he went to the Whangarei District Court and asked for the protection order to be served on him.

It was not ready and when he told court staff he had been arrested, court staff told him he could not be arrested and police could not act on it until the order had been served.

A complaint about the handling of the arrest was received by police on April 24.

Whangarei police Senior Sergeant Dan Cleaver said police had since had informal discussions with the man and accepted more could have been done to check the initial order had been served.

Mr Cleaver met the man at the Whangarei station on Tuesday and apologised for the error.

"Police take issues relating to family violence seriously and our staff are trained appropriately in the area of protection orders," Mr Cleaver said.

"We have also recently changed some administrative procedures in relation to the serving of protection orders."

The Independent Police Conduct Authority was notified of the complaint in April, but referred it back to the district.