A police officer, previously filmed with a colleague taking turns on a stripper pole, has now been revealed to have engaged in a sexual encounter with a woman at her home while on duty.
Footage posted in 2024 to a well-known gang member’s social media showed an on-duty Auckland police officer embracing a woman inside a private property.
The Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA) oversaw the police investigation into two officers after receiving information of “inappropriate activity” between them and a civilian.
Police confirmed with the Herald that the incident investigated by the IPCA relates to the officers pictured on the stripper pole.
Auckland City District Commander, Superintendent Sunny Patel, said regardless of the findings of the investigation, there are high expectations set for their people while they are on duty.
“We are appalled at the poor conduct and decision-making,” Patel said.
When the incident occurred, Officer B and his field training officer, Officer A, were working together during a night shift.
In the early morning, the two officers conducted a routine traffic stop of a woman and queried her in the police database.
Officer A then contacted the woman by text message, resulting in an inappropriate conversation, which Officer B was unaware of, the IPCA report said.
The two officers separately conducted several further queries of the woman in the police database towards the end of their shift that day.
The next night, the officers were again working together during a night shift when Officer A received a phone call from the intoxicated woman they had previously queried, who requested a ride home from her workplace.
The officers then drove her home and were invited inside.
The report said Officer B became uncomfortable with being in the property and returned to the patrol vehicle parked outside.
Officer A and the woman were inside the address for an extended period of time.
While together inside the address Officer A and the woman “engaged in consensual sexual activity”.
Officer B conducted additional queries of the woman within the police database because of concerns he held for the actions of Officer A with her.
Over the next several weeks, Officer A twice returned to the woman’s address by himself while on duty and on both occasions engaged in sexual activity with her, the report said.
“On one of these occasions, Officer A left police equipment at the address and returned to retrieve it,” after the woman made the officer aware of it.
Officer A shared digital images of police activity with the woman and also completed a large number of further queries with her in the police database.
The investigation explored the officers’ alleged misuse of the database and sharing of police information, but found there was insufficient evidence to prove a criminal offence.
Officer A resigned from the police during the investigation.
Police concluded the employment process for him in accordance with the Public Service Commission’s guidelines. Officer B was subject to a confidential employment process.
“Officer A was the more experienced member of the pair, being Officer B’s field training officer when they were both on night shift.
“We are appalled at the poor conduct and decision-making of Officer A throughout this matter,” Patel said.
The IPCA said it is satisfied with the investigation the police undertook and the outcome reached for both officers involved.
In the video posted last year, an officer was seen clasping the woman to his chest and lifting her before she turns, showing her back to the camera. It is not known whether this was Officer A or B.
The woman in the video contacted the Herald last year to say the recording was made in June when she was seeing a police officer.
She stressed she was not naked in the video but was wearing a “two-piece, skin-coloured outfit”.
The relationship with the officer was brief and had ended after the police National Integrity Unit became involved, she said.
She had shared the video with a friend and believed it was made public after a falling out between the two of them.
The timestamp on the video said it was taken in the early hours of June 29 last year.
In home security footage shared with the Herald, the two uniformed officers could be seen jumping on to and straddling the strippers’ pole, while twirling around it with assistance from a woman.
Both officers seemed interested in having a turn on the pole, which was erected in the middle of the room. The pair appeared to be smiling after their performance before patting a cat inside the residence.
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