KEY POINTS:
Dame Margaret Bazley says she was surprised when she began her commission of inquiry to find that the police - unlike other public servants - had no code of conduct.
She was also concerned to find that, although the police had other documents setting out required attributes and
standards of behaviour, there were no guidelines about sexually inappropriate conduct by officers towards members of the public.
And none of 42 offences laid out in the Police Regulations explicitly addressed the misuse of officers' positions of power to have sexual relations, particularly with vulnerable people with whom they came into contact in the course of their duties.
Dame Margaret's report mentioned several cases which she found "very disturbing", such as the widow of a road crash victim coaxed into a relationship including alleged group sex with the officer investigating the smash, and of a 14-year-old boy indecently assaulted by a policeman he met in 1991 after laying a sex complaint against another man.
The other man was convicted, but the police officer committed suicide before his case went to court.
Other cases included those of a young woman with a mental age of 12 who became involved in a sexual relationship in the mid-1990s with a policeman during a voluntary work assignment, and a teenager who wanted to join the police so arranged through her school in 1984 to go on patrol with two officers to gain work experience.
After she had been on patrol with them several times, one of the officers invited her to a house where he had sexual intercourse with her, while the other allegedly watched.
Dame Margaret said the officer admitted having sex with the girl, but there was not enough evidence of lack of consent for a prosecution.
The girl, who said she was too embarrassed to complain until 20 years later, told Dame Margaret that the episode put her off wanting to join the police, that she lost interest in school, and she could not tell her children that they should ask a policeman for help if they were in trouble.
A draft code of practice for police has existed since 2002, but its introduction has been delayed by Government proposals to overhaul the Police Act.
Among Dame Margaret's 60 recommendations - which the Government says will all be implemented - is an addition to the draft code banning police from entering a sexual relationship "with a person over whom they are in a position of authority or where there is a power differential."
Codes Of Conduct In Other Occupations
Public Servants
There are no explicit references to sexual behaviour in the public service code of conduct, but Government employees are bound not to bring the service into disrepute through their private lives.
The code, which governs the conduct of the core public service's 40,000 or so employees, is being streamlined by the State Services Commission to cover more than 150,000 staff of a range of Crown entities including district health boards.
Exceptions are the police, the Defence Force and state-owned enterprises.
EDICTS against conflicts of interest or accepting inducements are prominent in the code, and public servants are reminded that New Zealanders are entitled to the high expectations they have of staff in Government agencies. "Public servants should avoid any activities, whether connected with their official duties or otherwise, which might bring their department and the public service into disrepute, or jeopardise their relationships with ministers, clients or the general public," the code says.
State Services Commissioner Mark Prebble has spent 18 months drafting a new code of conduct embodying the same principles, but in plainer language which leaves it to individual departments to ADD more detailed rules specific to their operations.
Teachers
The Teachers Council code of ethics does not refer specifically to behaviour in the classroom, or relationships with students, but the fundamental principles include "preventing the abuse of power" and "minimising harm to others".
Teachers are given commitments they must meet to society, parents and families and to their profession.
But their primary commitment is to their students. That includes developing professional relationships in the best interests of students and promoting the "physical, emotional, social, intellectual and spiritual wellbeing of learners".
Dr Peter Lind, director of the Teachers Council, said the code was not a set of rules but a guide to be interpreted and applied to different situations.
"If you try to produce comprehensive rules, the risk is you miss something out. The commitment to students must mean that inappropriate relationships are not entered into."
Mr Lind said teachers also had a responsibility outside the classroom to do nothing that could bring the profession into disrepute.
"Teachers are held as trusted members of society whose behaviour and conduct is expected to show they are leading good lives."
Lawyers
There are 79 pages of rules for the professional conduct of barristers and solicitors covering advocacy in prosecution and defence, relations with other legal practitioners and third parties, court proceedings, handling of money and client relationships.
The number one rule is that the "relationship between practitioner and client is one of confidence and trust, which must never be abused".
Judgment should always be made to benefit the client and never for personal interest.
"The relationship of confidence and trust may be breached where a practitioner and client enter into a sexual relationship," the code says.
The rules also say nothing should be done to "bring the profession into disrepute" and, under the Law Practitioners Act, solicitors and barristers can be guilty of "conduct unbecoming". However, there is no definition of what would constitute these in either the act or the rules of conduct.
The assessment of whether there has been a breach of acceptable conduct is one for a district society, tribunal or court, it says.
Clergy
Sexual intimacy for clergy in their pastoral relationships is "inevitably exploitative and is therefore unacceptable".
Most churches have a code of conduct which members of their clergy sign when they are inducted into the profession. They are different for different denominations, but largely govern standards of ministry, pastoral care and responsibilities to the church, the wider community and society in general. Many individual churches also have their own codes for volunteers, lay preachers and those who work with children.
The Catholic Church in New Zealand has also developed practices and policies to deal with sexual abuse complaints and has formed a National Professional Standards Office.
Among the key demands in many of the codes is that clergy must not abuse their position by taking advantage of people for purposes of personal, political, financial or institutional gain.
In the Methodist Ethical Standards for Ministry, clergy also agree to take action to confront "incompetent and unethical conduct by colleagues".
Brother Richard Dunleavy, chairman of the Catholic Communications Board, said clergy were generally led by a different code than those in other professions: "The first code of conduct; which is the Ten Commandments."
Doctors
In most cases, sexual relationships between a doctor and a patient would be unethical - even when the doctor-patient relationship has been brief and in the distant past.
"Doctors are involved in relationships in which there is a potential imbalance of power," says the Medical Association code of ethics.
A sexual relationship with a current patient is unethical and, in most instances, the same applies to a former patient "particularly where exploitation of patient vulnerability occurs".
The code covers responsibilities to patients, the profession, research, teaching and medicine and commerce.
Doctors have a general responsibility for the safety of patients, which extends to taking appropriate steps to "curtail" unsafe or unethical practices by colleagues.
However, the code also suggests if a relationship with a former patient has developed from social contact away from the professional environment "impropriety would not necessarily be inferred".
"Any complaints about a sexual relationship with a former patient need to be considered on an individual basis before being condemned as unethical."
