A police officer has potentially thrown his employer into disrepute after photos taken earlier this year show him posing with a gang patch, according to an employment lawyer.
Both the assistant police commissioner and police minister have said the images are disappointing.
Police said an internal process would take place to determine further action, and employment lawyer Barbara Buckett told RNZ the photos could have serious consequences.
“Even though the legislation wasn’t in place, that was certainly what the police understood that they were taking on board, that there was an issue that was going to segue into requirements,” she said.
“So, it could be seen as mocking the intention, the situation, and bringing his employer into disrepute.”
Images of a police officer wearing a gang vest have gone viral on social media.
Buckett said police would be looking at what steps to take.
“The overriding requirement of the police as an employer is to act as a fair and reasonable employer would do in the circumstances,” she said.
“And, I guess, there are options open to them, which may include dismissal, if they find this is serious misconduct.”
Police Association president Chris Cahill said he was more concerned about the leak of the images.
“Officers horsing around in the office with their mates, I don’t really think there’s too big a deal with it,” Cahill said.
“The real issue for me is how it ended up on social media, and how silly it was to allow that to happen. But there’s probably more of a story as [to] why it’s only been released now and who’s done that.”
He thought the photos had been strategically released.
“Clearly, the idea of putting it on social media, if it was the officer or his mates that did that, is stupid, but I’m more suspicious with it only being released now that there’s something more controlled behind that release.”
“The fact that something has gone outside the organisation I also think should be of concern, but that won’t detract from what’s happened in terms of the individual,” she said.
Already, officers were cracking down on gangs under the new legislation.
The president of the Head Hunters West chapter was charged on Monday for breaching the law.
And on Sunday night, a man wearing a Killer Beez t-shirt voluntarily handed it over to authorities at an Auckland hospital.
Ihi research director Dr Catherine Leonard said the photos would strain the relationship between officers and gang members.
“I think the implication for the photos are just breaking down that trust and relationship between police and communities that police have worked hard to establish over the past, say, 10 years,” she said.
Leonard said that posed a risk to the safety of police and gang members.
“What we want to do is improve that safety, improve that communication when there are incidents where police need to intervene, and there are incidents where police need to intervene with gangs,” she said.
“If they have that trust and relationship with gangs, they’re much more able to go and address that in communities.”
But Cahill said they needed to be looked at in context.
“Our officers have got a stressful job, they’re doing a lot of difficult work,” he said.
“Sometimes, you need to have a little, you know, a bit fun as a breakout from that, and sometimes in context there doesn’t seem to be anything wrong with what they do, and then you look at it in a different light and you go ‘that probably wasn’t the cleverest thing I’ve ever done’.”
