Police HQ orders staff to close ranks on past culture in the force

By JO-MARIE BROWN and NZPA

Police officers have been warned not to speak out about the culture that existed within the force at the time Louise Nicholas says she was pack-raped.

In a memo circulated to staff, the general manager of public affairs at police national headquarters, Michael Player, said staff should not respond to any media requests for information about what their working lives were like in past decades.

The clampdown comes just days after Prime Minister Helen Clark announced a commission of inquiry, following Mrs Nicholas' claims three police pack-raped her in Rotorua in 1986 when she was 18.

All three have strenuously denied the allegations. The only one still in the force, Assistant Commissioner Clint Rickards, has been stood down on full pay as a criminal investigation gets under way.

Southern police boss Superintendent Nick Perry was last night named to lead a team of 13 officers.

The separate commission of inquiry will consider wider issues within the police force.

In his memo, Mr Player instructed staff not to speak about any of the issues raised by Mrs Nicholas' case, "and in particular, the police culture".

News of the inquiry has brought further claims of rape by police. An Auckland Sexual Abuse Help Foundation counsellor, Caroline Day, said she knew of four cases in the past 18 months where such rape complaints had not led to prosecutions.

She said police persuaded at least one woman that her claim would not stand up in court.

Former Police Association secretary Bob Moodie said he knew of another case involving a female police officer who did not pursue her claim of rape by a male colleague.

"She wouldn't complain and the reason she wouldn't is because she had no confidence her complaint would ever be investigated."

Dr Moodie believed police culture had improved in recent years.

"The attitude of young males towards women was different. We were like young bulls in a paddock."

Police Association president Greg O'Connor said officers were expected to work a lot harder now and there was much greater accountability.

"A police officer who gets a complaint made against them will be subject to much more rigorous investigating and disciplinary processes then they have been in the past."