Police cover-up allegations: Profile of Clint Rickards

By AINSLEY THOMSON and JULIE MIDDLETON

When Clint Rickards was young, he had close contact with police - invariably because he was up to mischief.

Officers were constantly bringing him home for breaking into buildings, stealing and committing petty crimes.

Of those days, Mr Rickards once told the Waikato Times that "if something wasn't nailed down, it would find its way into my pocket".

But he knew he always wanted to be a cop. After school, he told the newspaper, he would train his german shepherd dog, Fury, as if he were a police dog.

Mr Rickards, 43, is 1.8m tall - just over 6ft - and has a shiny shaved head sitting atop about 130kg.

One of his meaty forearms bears elaborate tattoos: one a scorpion, the other a black panther wrestling with a snake.

It's a body used to action - Mr Rickards can apparently benchpress about 205kg. He traded schoolboy rugby for judo, competing in the 1986 Commonwealth Games.

During his police career he has earned a business degree in human resources and a masters degree in public policy from Sydney's Charles Sturt University.

He was reported in 2001 to be completing a doctorate on public policy.

His partner is Tania Eden, an inspector working in cultural affairs in the Office of the Commissioner.

Mr Rickards started with the Rotorua police as an 18-year-old. His age meant he could not make arrests until he was 19.

A gun was pulled on him in his first week, an event that left him shaken but with enthusiasm undimmed, he told the Waikato Times.

In the same interview, Mr Rickards said that it's the "variety of challenges and the unknown that I love ... The police force has given me everything I ever wanted".

Mr Rickards spent four years in Rotorua as a constable, and also did a stint undercover. It's the lot of police officers to transfer all over the country, and he worked in places as far-flung as Otahuhu in Auckland, Hastings, Invercargill and Papakura.

He had clocked up 14 years as a detective by the time he stepped up to the role of superintendent district commander in Gisborne.

When he became Waikato's district manager two years later, he was 38 and the country's youngest district commander.

He moved to Wellington when he was appointed as the country's youngest assistant commissioner in 2001, but Mr Rickards reportedly felt hamstrung in the mostly administrative role, and wanted to become more involved with front-line policing.

"In HQ you lose touch with what is happening on the streets," he told the newspaper.

His appointment as Auckland Central commander became effective on New Year's Day.

So what sort of person is Clint Rickards? At times like this, grudge-bearing opponents are going to be more vocal than the supporters arranging their wagons around him, but a consistent description of a confident and possibly overbearing manner does emerge.

One veteran officer, who does not want to be named, sums up by saying he has known Mr Rickards throughout his career and has followed his "meteoric rise" up the ranks.

"Clint would tell anyone who would listen he was going to be the first Maori police commissioner. And he would step on whatever toes he had to in order to get there."

Others are damning. One serving officer, who also declines to be named, says many staff loathe Mr Rickards. "He's aggressive and controlling. When he left Hamilton, they all breathed a huge sigh of relief."

Many officers would not be unhappy to see Mr Rickards "go down", he says.

But many Maori are behind him. Tainui kaumatua Tui Adams, who says he has been asked to speak on behalf of the family, says: "The allegations surfaced before and we supported him. We've always supported Clint."

Mr Adams has spoken to Tania Eden and says "she is very upset, and rightly so. It's going to be a difficult time for them".

He won't speculate on outcomes: his main concern is that inquiries are carried out as swiftly as possible.

Two weeks ago, Mr Rickards, draped in a feather cloak, was welcomed to his new job at Ngati Whatua's Orakei marae. Among the 200 at the lively ceremony were leaders of Tainui, the Asian and Pacific Island community, and Auckland region mayors.

Mr Rickards said then his initial plan in the job was to "sit back, take a deep breath and see what needs looking at". For the next three weeks, he is on leave as he becomes scrutinised by his own.

Clint Rickards, 43

* Born and raised in Rotorua. Of Tainui subtribe Ngati Hikairo, of Kawhia.

* Joined police at 18 in Rotorua. After four years there, has had posts in other centres, including Otahuhu, Hastings, Papakura, Gisborne and Hamilton.

* 1997: Appointed superintendent district commander, Gisborne.

* 1999: Appointed superintendent district commander, Waikato.

* September 2001: Becomes one of three assistant police commissioners, Wellington.

* January 2004: Takes on extra role as Auckland district police commander.