Independent Police Conduct Authority

The Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA) is an independent body that considers complaints against the New Zealand Police and oversees their conduct. It derives its responsibility from the Independent Police Conduct Authority Act. Under section 12.1 of the Act, the Authority's functions are to receive complaints about the police employees, practice, policy, or procedure; investigate those complaints and make recommendations based on those investigations.

The Authority also monitors conditions of detention and treatment of detainees in Police custody. In this respect, the IPCA is one of several 'national preventive mechanisms' designated in 2007 under an amendment to the Crimes of Torture Act. Other agencies with responsibility for monitoring places of detention include the Human Rights Commission, the Children's Commissioner and the Ombudsmen. Together, these agencies including the IPCA, have joint responsibility to uphold New Zealand's commitment to the (OPCAT).

Prior to 1989, complaints against the Police were investigated internally. Following several years of debate about Police accountability, sparked in part by the role of Police during the 1981 South Africa rugby union tour of New Zealand, the Police Complaints Authority was established in 1989. The Police Complaints Authority comprised a single person, the first Authority being High Court Judge Peter Quilliam. He was followed by High Court Judge John Jeffries and then by District Court Judge Ian Borrin. Because of its reliance on police to investigate themselves, the Authority was perceived as lacking independence. Allan Galbraith, was appointed as the Authority's first Manager of Investigations in 2003 and held that position until 2010. He had been a member of the New Zealand Police for 37 years.

In 2004, a number of historic sexual misconduct allegations dating from the 1980s were made against both serving and former police officers. During that year, Prime Minister Helen Clark announced a Commission would be established to carry out an independent investigation into the way in which the New Zealand Police had dealt with allegations of sexual assault. The investigation was conducted by Dame Margaret Bazley and took three years. It reviewed 313 complaints of sexual assault against 222 police officers, including 141 in which Dame Margaret said the evidence was strong enough to warrant criminal charges or disciplinary action.

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