Use of non-sworn police staff outrageous, defence lawyers say

1.00pm

A police pilot scheme to send civilian staff to investigate some burglaries and crimes has been labelled "outrageous" by criminal lawyers.

Under the South Auckland pilot, non-sworn police staff have been sent to crime scenes to gather evidence, including fingerprints and witness statements.

The staff have travelled to some scenes in marked police patrol cars which also has the Police Association worried.

The association said people driving marked police cars should be police officers who could respond to calls from the public, and recognise and stop at incidents needing a police presence.

Auckland criminal lawyers said the scheme was "outrageous" and should not happen.

Defence lawyer Barry Hart said evidence gathered by non-police staff would be open to a far higher level of challenge in court.

"When they are actually out there investigating crime, the line has to be drawn. If they want to be police officers they have got to get proper training and get qualified."

Police spokeswoman Andi Devlin said the pilot programme was run from the Mt Wellington CIB and eastern area and began in 2002. Most of the non-sworn staff had backgrounds working at crime scenes or doing police work. They were highly trained and closely monitored by sworn members of the police, she said.

Police Association president Greg O'Connor said the pilot would probably become police policy.

But Mr Hart said: "It shouldn't be."

"If I get any unsworn police officers coming in (to court), I will have something to say about their evidence."

He said if they were interviewing people, issues such as the Bill of Rights could apply.

"Are they going to administer the Bill of Rights such as police officers do. It is just total misrepresentation.

"When the person asks 'What is your authority, are you a policeman?' What do they say then? It is a nonsense. The fact is that they are not policemen," Mr Hart said.

Marie Dyhrberg, also a criminal lawyer and a former president of the Criminal Bar Association, said she would want to know the qualifications of a person gathering evidence.

"If somebody is a non-sworn, they are going to be the subject of much greater challenge in a court case than someone you know has undertaken proper police training."

Ms Dyhrberg said it was cost-cutting at the expense of more confidence in the police.

As a citizen she would want to know that her burglary complaint was being investigated by a trained police officer and not a civilian.

"I am not going to have the same confidence in someone who is not a trained police officer and that is the problem with the public.

"There is certainly not going to be the same measure of confidence I would have, as defence counsel, that an investigation has been carried out properly when I am comparing a trained police officer with a non-sworn."

Mr O'Connor said the country needed between 400 and 500 more police officers.

"The bottom line is that there are simply not enough police officers available."

He said when an additional 60 non-sworn staff were made available for Auckland recently, they were not given the funds for backup such as cars, infrastructure and support services.

Because of the staff shortages, non-sworn staff were doing more than anticipated and sometimes had to use marked police patrol cars, Mr O'Connor said.

Non-sworn staff were continually driving marked police cars and that would continue to increase.

National's law and order spokesman Tony Ryall said non-sworn staff should not drive marked police cars.

"They are not qualified law enforcement officers," he said.

"The problem with driving marked police cars is this: the public may flag the car down only to find non-sworn Joe Average behind the wheel and unable to help. That will cause ill-will towards police at a time when they need support."

Mr Ryall said his latest information was that in February it took Auckland police an average 23 hours 10 minutes to respond to burglary inquiries.

"I am certain local people would say that sworn police would be better investigating crime scenes than collecting revenue with speed cameras," he said.

- NZPA