Complaint to Police Complaints Authority
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New Zealand is a civilised country that prides itself
on having a Police force that is relatively free of the corrupt practises
experienced in some other countries. However no large organization
including the New Zealand Police is free from individuals who occasionally
make mistakes. Mistakes can range from something as simple as an innocent
typing error to serious criminal activity. In general the Police have good systems in place to
correct these mistakes internally but occasionally there are circumstances
where an internal investigation would be seen as unobjective. For cases
such as these there exists an independent body known as the Police
Complaints Authority or PCA. The PCA is headed by a District Court judge who investigates and conciders complaints from members of the general public when they are concerned by various actions the Police may have taken. The PCA has the ability to recomend remedying actions to be taken by the Police Commisioner. The Police themselves have even been known to use the PCA (as was the case when secret witness A recanted his evidence). Chris Watson has recently had cause to lodge a complaint with the PCA after discovering what he considers to be mistakes in affidavites presented by the Police when applying for interception warrants to plant listening devises in various places. For more detail about his complaint click onto the links to the left of the page.
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