Police defend handling of child abuse cases

Police have defended their ability to manage child abuse cases despite detectives reporting being swamped by an increasing workload.

Child abuse investigators told the Police Association's monthly newsletter, Police News, that some police districts had up to 200 unallocated abuse cases, and the system was in crisis.

The backlog was severe in Wairarapa, the scene of a number of child murders including Lillybing, Saliel Aplin and Olympia Jetson, and Coral Burrows.

Detective Sergeant Tusha Penny, Lower Hutt child abuse team supervisor, told the magazine: "We put all out resources into the murder inquiries for these children when they get murdered, but when they're alive and we know they're at risk, often we don't have the resources to allocate to it."

Peter Marshall, acting deputy commissioner operations, admitted the number of suspected abuse cases reported were increasing but said police had systems in place to prioritise and manage the incidents.

"We have capacity to deal with child abuse cases and every district does so in an ongoing, informed way in collaboration with appropriate government agencies," he said.

"There are specialist Child Abuse Teams in every district with annual ongoing training for specialist sex abuse investigators."

Mr Marshall said there had been an increase in reported cases of child abuse as a consequence of a closer working relationship with CYF and other government agencies and because of an increased intolerance in the community.

"There is no doubt that child abuse investigators are under particular pressure by virtue of the types of complaints they are investigating and the increasing number of complaints."

There was no district with 200 files unallocated, he said.

He was aware that some districts had an issue with the caseload of detectives and measures were being taken at a district level to alleviate the pressure.

However, child abuse teams said there was little support from top level managers.

One unnamed detective said burglaries and other property offences were "taking over police" and child abuse was "shuffled back down the list of priorities".

A National Coordinator for Child Abuse was appointed early this year, Mr Marshall said.

That coordinator will be meeting the 20 child abuse team managers at their annual meeting this week where national issues and recommended responses, including a plan for ongoing development of systems and resourcing, will be discussed.

"Property crime does not take higher priority than child abuse cases. Police prioritise their work according to threat to safety," Mr Marshall said.

"Any threat to the safety of a child would take top priority in any police station in the country."

- NZPA