A police officer used excessive force in the arrest of a man in Auckland in 2020, the Independent Police Conduct Authority has found.
The man was arrested on 21 June, 2020 after being disturbed by police while tagging a Hopetoun Street wall in the central city.
He ran away but was soon found but resisted arrest while being taken to the ground and handcuffed.
During the arrest he was punched twice to the head by an officer who believed he may have been holding weapons.
The man was also kneed to the head by the same officer, who thought he was trying to grab hold of the equipment on his duty belt, which included a Taser and pepper spray.
The man suffered a number of injuries, which saw him end up in hospital. He later claimed he was racially profiled because he is Māori.
The IPCA, which has just been able to release its findings because legal proceedings linked to the case wrapped up in February, says while they found no evidence that officers profiled him or used excessive force because of his ethnicity, mistakes were made.
The Authority found that while taking the man to the ground and arresting him was justified, punching and kneeing him wasn’t.
“These uses of force were disproportionate to the risk posed by the man, and excessive,” said Authority Chair, Judge Colin Doherty.
Police have acknowledged the IPCA’s findings, saying that the situation was “volatile and dynamic”.
The officers involved remain members of the police.
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